ENGLISH    DOMESTIC 
RELATIONS 

1487- -1653 


A  STUDY   OF  MATRIMONY  AND  FAMILY   LIFE 

IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  AS  REVEALED 

BY  THE  LITERATURE,   LAW,    AND 

HISTORY  OF  THE  PERIOD 


BY 

ciiiJ/roN  I.A'i^A^1  powell 

INSTft'    .  i'OK      N     TllK    JUH.Nf    UOtJtJNS    UNlVi;KSlfY 


SUBMITTBI)  IN  i*\Tni*.L   1"  IJ! .FILMKN^T  OF  THE  RvX^UIBKlVfENTS 
FOE  THF   Dl    ;  Dv^   V<^R   OF    Pk.'UX       '  1  .'.  IN   THE 


UC-NRLF 


d=D    PLL,    M5M 


COLUMBIA    L-MVl.  ..-i  t\    PRESS 
1917 

All  rights  reserved 


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Columbia  WLnitttnit^ 

STUDIES  IN  ENGLISH  AND  COMPARATIVE 
LITERATURE 


ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 
1487—1653 


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TITLE    PAGE    OF    HARRINGTON's    BOOK 

(Cu<  8Aoi/;s  marriage  scene) 


ENGLISH    DOMESTIC 
RELATIONS 

1487—1653 


A  STUDY  OF  MATRIMONY  AND  FAMILY  LIFE 

IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  AS  REVEALED 

BY  THE  LITERATURE,  LAW,  AND 

HISTORY  OF  THE  PERIOD 


BY 

CHILTON  LATHAM  POWELL 

INSTRUCTOR    IN    THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements 

FOR  THE  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the 

Faculty  of  Philosophy,  Columbia.  University 


jl5eto  9otk 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1917 

AU  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1917 
By  Columbia  University  Press 


Printed  from  tSTie,  March,  1917 


This  Monograph  has  been  approved  by  the  Department  of 
English  and  Comparative  Literature  in  Columbia  University 
as  a  contribution  to  knowledge  worthy  of  publication, 

A.  H.  Thorndike, 

Executive  Officer 


358451 


PREFACE 

The  present  work  was  undertaken  in  the  belief  that  con- 
siderable knowledge  of  any  particular  subject  could  be 
gained  by  examining  not  only  the  literature  centering  around 
it  but  also  whatever  other  expression  of  fact  or  opinion  might 
exist  in  connection  with  it  during  the  period  under  con- 
sideration. The  subject  of  my  investigation  here  is  that 
of  domestic  relations  in  England,  including  both  the  con- 
tract of  marriage  (its  making  and  breaking)  and  the  sub- 
sequent life  of  the  family.  The  period  involved  extends 
from  the  first  appearance  of  the  subject  in  English  writing 
up  to  its  first  CTeat  crisis,  a  height  of  clear  thinking  and 
vigorous  expressioEToh^  which  Milton  and  Cromwell  stand 
alone.  Although  it  has  been  necessary  to  thus  limit  the 
work  in  regard  to  time  and  place,  an  effort  has  been  main- 
tained to  make  the  field  of  investigation  within  these  limits 
as  all-inclusive  as  possible. 

I  cannot  fairly  claim  to  be  entering  terra  incognita  in 
this  study.  Legal  writers  have  already  covered  the  field 
as  thoroughly  as  available  material  from  legal  sources  has 
allowed  them  to  go;  historians  have  also  done  something, 
though  not  a  great  deal,  in  tracing  the  development  of  the 
different  marriage  ceremonies  during  the  period;  and  stu- 
dents of  literature  have  made  a  few  blind  thrusts  here  and 
there  whenever  they  found  their  heroes,  like  Milton,  step- 
ping aside  from  the  fields  of  the  imagination  to  discuss  a 
"business  of  such  concernment  to  the  life  of  man."  No 
one,  however,  has  used  all  possible  sources  of  information  — 


Vm  PREFACE 

history,  law,  literature,  and  actual  practice  —  to  concen- 
trate research  from  different  angles  upon  all  the  interests 
involved;  and  since  the  information  hitherto  discovered, 
except  in  the  legal  field,  is  scant  to  the  point  of  being  neg- 
ligible, it  is  only  by  using  all  available  sources  and  com- 
bining the  results  thus  gained  that  the  actual  conditions 
of  the  period  may  be  set  forth  and  the  contemporary 
literature  on  the  subject  properly  understood. 

As  is  suggested  above,  the  field  of  literature  (using  the 
term  broadly  to  include  all  kinds  of  writing)  has  been  almost 
entirely  neglected  in  connection  with  the  present  subject. 
For  this  reason,  we  may  expect  to  find  it,  as  an  expression 
of  current  thought  and  practice,  the  most  profitable  source 
of  information,  particularly  such  works  as  may  be  eliminated 
from  the  stricter  limits  of  literature  on  the  ground  of  being 
utilitarian  rather  than  artistic.  On  the  legal  and  eccle- 
siastical status  of  matrimony,  the  conditions  and  opinions 
of  the  day  are  to  be  found  principally  in  tracts,  controversial 
and  otherwise  the  Thomason  collection  being  especially 
valuable,  in  confessions  and  defenses  of  faith,  and  occa- 
sionally, as  a  side  issue,  in  books  on  domestic  life.  It  is 
only  when  a  writer  turns  aside  from  controverted  subjects 
and  aims  to  present  his  conception  of  ideal  family  life  that 
we  meet  with  books  of  any  length  or  anything  like  a  series 
of  works  that  we  may  class  together  as  a  type  or  genre. 
The  demonstration  of  such  a  series,  developing  from  the 
beginning  of  the  English  Reformation  up  to  the  days  of 
the  Commonwealth  and  running  parallel  to  legal  and  eccle- 
siastical agitation  in  the  same  field,  is  perhaps  the  most 
important  contribution  of  the  present  study  to  the  history 
of  literature;  but  from  a  wider  point  of  view,  its  contribu- 
tions to  the  history  of  law  and  practice  in  church  and  state 
as  well  as  its  assemblage  of  legal  and  historical  material 
not  elsewhere  so  available,  may  be  thought  to  be  of  equal 


PREFACE  IX 

moment.  Attention  should  also  be  called  to  the  first  two 
appendices,  which  on  account  of  their  growth  under  investi- 
gation had  to  be  removed  from  the  main  body  of  the  book. 
The  first  presents  the  only  existing  account  of  the  English 
writings  on  the  divorce  suit  of  Henry  VIII,  correcting  many 
bibliographical  errors  previously  made  and  discussing  sev- 
eral important  books  hitherto  practically  unknown  {e.g, 
those  of  John  Fisher) ;  and  the  second  attempts  to  overthrow 
altogether  the  present  conception  of  Milton's  early  married 
life  and  the  supposed  cause  of  his  tracts  on  divorce. 

Although  this  book  was  undertaken  upon  my  own  in- 
itiative and  has  been  worked  out  according  to  my  own 
ideas,  I  am  indebted  to  others  for  incidental  assistance. 
To  Professor  Charles  William  Wallace,  of  the  University 
of  Nebraska,  I  wish  to  express  my  gratitude  for  his  ever 
ready  kindness  in  helping  me  with  bibliographical  work 
at  the  British  Museum.  To  Professors  Ashley  H.  Thorn- 
dike,  Jefferson  B.  Fletcher,  George  Philip  Krapp,  and 
Munroe  Smith,  of  Columbia  University,  and  to  Rev.  Dr. 
J.  G.  Dangar,  Prebendary  of  Exeter  Cathedral,  I  am  also 
duly  grateful  for  valuable  suggestions  on  certain  details. 
Professor  Smith's  final  approval  of  my  investigation  may 
be  taken  as  a  guarantee  of  its  accuracy  in  points  of  law. 
Finally,  I  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my  appre- 
ciation of  the  privileges  kindly  extended  to  me  by  the 
following  institutions,  where  my  studies  were  carried  on  — 
the  British  Museum,  the  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford,  the 
libraries  of  Christ  College  and  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, the  University  of  Edinburgh  Library,  the  Peabody 
Institute,  Baltimore,  and  the  Bar  Library  of  Baltimore. 

Baltimore,  Md. 
June,  1916. 

C.  L.  P. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.  INTRODUCTION 

I.  The  Laws  op  Marriage 1 

II.  Practice  and  Customs  op  Marriage 13 

II.  CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE 

I.  Historical  Situation 28 

II.  The  Puritan  Platporm  in  regard  to  Marriage  37 

III.  The  Position  and  Practice  op  the  Indepen- 

dents   44 

IV.  Continental,  Scottish,  and  American  Churches  49 
V.  The  English  Church  op  the  Commonwealth..  54 

III.  THE  ATTEMPTED  REFORM  OF  DIVORCE 

I.  Legal  Situation 61 

II.  The      Puritan  -  Anglican     Controversy     on 

Divorce 70 

III.  The  Final  Deadlock 84 

IV.  THE  DOMESTIC  CONDUCT  BOOK 

I.  The  Type  and  its  Origin 101 

II.  Puritan     and     Romish     Attitudes     towards 

Marriage 119 

III.  Later  Domestic  Books 129 

IV.  The  Domestic  Book  as  Literature 139 

V.  CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN 

I.  Ecclesiastical 147 

II.   Domestic  and  Courtly 152 

III.  Commendation  and  Satire 160 

IV.  Historical  and  General  View 169 

VI.  WIDER  RANGES  OF  DOMESTIC  LITERATURE 

I.  More  General  Conduct  Books 179 

II.  Domestic  Drama 192 


XU  CONTENTS 

APPENDICES 

A.  English   Writing   on   the   Divorce   of   Henry 

VIII  AND  Catherine 207 

B.  Date  and  Occasion  of  Milton's  First  Divorce 

Tract 225 

C.  Directions  for  Matrimony  from  Harrington's 

Book 232 

D.  Contents  of  Typical  Domestic  Books 234 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

I.  Early  Books  of  Domestic   Relations   etc 243 

II.  Books  on  Henry  VIII's  Divorce 252 

HI.  Later  Books  of  Reference 254 

INDEX 257 


ENGLISH 
DOMESTIC   EELATIONS 

1487-1653 
CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

I.  The  Laws  of  Marriage 

The  legal  aspects  of  marriage,  in  regard  to  both  the  orig- 
inal contract  and  the  resultant  relations  of  husband  and 
wife,  have  been  pretty  thoroughly  treated  in  books  of  law,^ 
but  it  is  necessary  to  have  the  principal  facts  involved 

*  A  brief  but  8ufl5cient  statement  of  the  development  of  the  legal 
history  of  marriage,  including  the  principal  points  of  Roman  canon 
law,  may  be  found  in  an  article  by  Munroe  Smith  in  the  Universal 
Cyclopedia  under  the  heading  of  Marriage.  The  best  statement  of  the 
canon  law  of  marriage  is  in  Esmein,  Le  Mariage  en  droit  canonigue. 
For  the  Roman  canon  law  of  marriage  and  divorce,  see  Coudert,  Mar- 
riage and  Divorce  Laws  in  Europe;  for  the  relations  of  Roman  canon 
law  to  English  law,  see  Maitland,  Raman  Canon  Law  in  the  Church  of 
England;  for  English  ecclesiastical  law,  as  modified  by  the  Reforma- 
tion and  subsequent  practice  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  see  Phillimore, 
Ecclesiastical  Law  of  the  Church  of  England  (Pt.  Ill,  ch.  VII).  An  excel- 
lent book  for  the  lay  reader  on  the  development  of  marriage  and  related 
subjects,  from  a  broader  and  less  legal  point  of  view  than  the  above 
works,  is  Howard,  History  of  Matrimonial  Institutions,  which  contains 
copious  notes  and  the  best  existing  bibliographies  on  the  general  sub- 
ject. The  only  early  legal  work  unknown  to  Howard  which  I  have 
found,  is  Ridley,  A  Viewe  of  Civile  and  Ecclesiasticall  Law  (published 
in  1607);  but  in  addition  to  this,  practically  all  the  books  discussed  m 
my  second,  third,  and  fourth  chapters  below  are  here  examined  for  the 
first  time  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  marriage.  Other  useful 
works  are  mentioned  in  the  notes  to  the  present  chapter. 

'I 


2  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

immediately  before  us.  Although  in  the  early  stages  of 
the  development  of  the  Aryan  races,  marriage  was  regarded 
as  a  religious  affair,  and  although  one  of  the  earliest  forms 
of  Roman  marriage  was  of  a  religious  nature,  the  only  ele- 
ment required  by  the  later  Roman  law  to  establish  the 
validity  of  a  marriage  was  the  consent  of  the  contracting 
parties.  The  Christian  church,  from  its  first  organization, 
made  a  consistent  and  increasing  effort  to  gain  control  of 
matrimonial  affairs;  but  although  by  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century  it  had  almost  complete  power  over  both 
marriage  and  divorce,  it  still  recognized  a  privately  con- 
tracted marriage,  made  by  mutual  vows  only,  as  valid, 
and  was  unable  to  stop  altogether  the  practice  of  private 
divorce.  The  constitution  of  marriage  as  a  sacrament  by 
the  Council  of  Florence  in  1439  —  a  conception  that  had 
been  slowly  maturing  for  centuries  —  was  the  obvious 
device  to  explain  and  perpetuate  the  doctrine  of  eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction;  but  not  until  the  Council  of  Trent 
in  1563  did  the  church  declare  officially  that  marriage  not 
contracted  in  the  presence  of  a  priest  and  witnesses  should 
be  void.  This  decree  was,  of  course,  too  late  to  affect 
England,  which  had  thrown  off  Papal  supremacy  in  1534; 
thus  the  English  Reformation  had  to  deal  with  the  entire 
question  of  marriage  and  divorce  in  the  vaguely  defined 
status  it  enjoyed  in  the  early  sixteenth  century.  Previous 
to  the  Reformation,  however,  the  case  of  England  was 
identical  with  that  of  other  Roman  CathoUc  countries, 
its  affairs  ecclesiastical  being  regulated  entirely  by  canon 
law,  which  in  regard  to  matrimonial  causes  had  drawn  its 
whole  theory  of  consent  from  Roman  civil  law.^ 

*  The  church,  however,  was  seldom  permitted  to  decide  questions 
of  property,  inheritance,  etc.,  involved  in  cases  of  marriage  or  divorce; 
it  acted  only  in  regard  to  the  validity  of  the  contract  and  the  right  of 
dissolving  it. 


INTKODUCTION  3 

The  period  which  we  are  investigating  in  this  book  lies 
altogether  within  the  days  of  church  supremacy,  and  the 
conception  of  marriage  with  which  we  must  start  is  that  of 
the  mediaeval  Church  of  Rome.  To  understand  the  vari- 
ous elements  here  involved,  it  is  necessary  to  look  more 
closely  into  the  regulations  and  ceremonies  of  marriage  as 
it  was  then  practiced.  The  fifteenth  century  is  the  time 
of  our  investigation  for  the  moment,  although  very  little 
change  took  place  between  the  twelfth  and  the  seventeenth. 

The  first  step  in  the  contract  of  marriage  was  called 
spousals,  which,  roughly  speaking,  correspond  to  the  be- 
trothal of  preceding  times  and  to  the  engagement  of  today.^ 
Spousals  differed  widely  in  kind  but  were  similar  in  effect. 
There  were  two  distinct  types,  de  futuro  and  de  praesenti. 
Spousals  de  futuro  were  merely  promises  made  by  or  for 
two  persons  to  marry  some  time  in  the  future,  deo  volente, 
and  might  be  broken  for  any  just  and  reasonable  cause  by 
either  party.  Such  spousals  might  be  made  by  parents 
for  young  children,  just  as  vows  are  made  for  them  at  bap- 
tism, but  these  promises  might  be  repudiated  for  any  reason 
whatever  by  either  of  the  young  people  upon  coming  to 
marriageable  age.  Spousals  de  praesenti  were  a  far  more 
serious  matter.  They  were  vows  made  similarly  to  the 
de  futuro  but  in  the  present  tense,  and  were  in  effect,  though 
not  in  name,  marriage  itself.^  They  could  be  broken  only 
by  death  and  by  entrance  into  holy  orders.  In  case  of 
cohabitation  after  either  form  of  spousals,  and  without  any  — 
marriage  ceremony,  the  offenders  laid  themselves  open  to 

1  For  a  full  discussion  of  this  subject  from  a  legal  point  of  view, 
see  Swinburne,  A  Treatise  of  Spousals;   for  a  treatment  from  a  more 
general  viewpoint,  see  Jeafifreson,  Brides  and  Bridals. 
*  Thus  the  Duchess  in  The  Duchess  of  Malfi.  says: 

"I  have  heard  lawyers  say,  a  contract  in  a  chamber 
Per  verba  praesenti  is  absolute  marriage." 


v^ 


ft  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   BELATIONS 

punishment  by  the  church,  but  their  union  was  recognized 
as  a  vaUd  marriage  by  both  church  and  state.  It  w£ts  thus 
possible  to  contract  an  irregular  but  perfectly  legal  marriage 
without  the  sanction  or  the  intervention  of  either  civil 
or  ecclesiastical  authority.  Spousals  of  either  type  might 
be  pure  or  conditional,  sworn  or  unsworn,  public  or  pri- 
vate, but  these  details  were  of  no  actual  importance,  al- 
though publicity  was  strongly  urged  in  all  cases.  Private 
spousals  could  be  accomplished  by  any  of  the  lovers'  formulas 
of  today  for  becoming  engaged,  and  in  public  spousals  there 
was  also  a  certain  amount  of  latitude  allowed.  In  the 
most  orthodox  form  of  the  latter,  a  priest  was  present,  and 
a  regular  ceremony  consisting  of  vows  similar  to  those  of 
a  present-day  wedding  was  gone  through  with.^  From  the 
great  diversity  of  practice  here  possible  and  the  secrecy 
with  which  private  spousals  might  be  made,  it  is  evident 
that,  as  the  church  was  the  only  authority  in  disputes 
concerning  spousals  and  marriages  and  as  this  authority 
was  usually  administered  by  local  courts  or  priests,  a  great 
latitude  of  interpretation  and  practice  was  possible,  espe- 
cially as  the  ecclesiastics  were  extremely  open  to  bribery 

i'^'  Readers  of  literature  of  this  period  (up  to  1650)  are  likely  to  fall 
into  two  errors  in  regard  to  spousals,  —  first,  that  of  not  recognizing 
a  private  spousal  and  its  importance  when  it  occurs,  and  second,  that 
of  mistaking  a  public  spousal  for  a  marriage.  Of  public  spousals  we 
have  good  examples  in  Twelfth  Night,  V,  1,  and  in  The  Taming  of  the 
Shrew,  III,  2  (see  below,  p.  19).  After  spousals,  the  engaged  couple 
might  call  each  other  "husband"  and  "wife,"  although  they  were  not 
really  so.  Thus  Olivia  calls  Cesario  (mistaking  him  for  Sebastian)  hus- 
band, and  likewise  Petruchio  calls  Katherine  wife  and  Baptista  father. 
In  Shakespeare,  the  exchange  of  rings  is  a  fairly  good  guide  to  a  mod- 
em audience  that  a  spousal  is  taking  place,  e.g.  Merchant  of  Venice, 
III,  2.  An  excellent  example  of  a  private  spousal  de  fviuro  occurs 
in  Heywood's  English  Traveller,  II,  1. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

of  one  kind  or  another.  Despite  this  fact,  so  much  impor- 
tance was  attached  to  these  contracts  that  a  secret  unsworn 
spousal  could  invalidate  a  later  regular  and  church-blessed 
marriage  and  render  the  children  of  it  illegitimate.^ 

The  legal  age  for  marriage,  which  might  follow  spousals 
immediately  or  after  an  interval  of  any  length,  was  fourteen 
for  males  and  twelve  for  females.^    But  the  church  performed 

1  The  point  here  was  that  persons  who  had  made  a  contract  were 
married  by  that  act  "in  the  eyes  of  God,"  and  were  controlled  by  the 
text,  "What  God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder," 
The  proper  application  of  this  text  in  various  instances  was  obviously 
difficult.  Milton,  remarking  upon  it  and  its  effects,  says  that  it  is  "as 
obscure  as  any  clause  fetched  out  of  Genesis,  and  hath  increased  a  yet 
undecided  controversy  of  clandestine  marriages."  Prose  Wrnks,  II,  17. 
We  find  several  instances  of  precontract  in  old  plays.  Beatrice  in  The 
Changeling,  in  order  to  escape  from  her  contract  with  Alonzo,  contrives 
to  have  him  murdered.  In  The  Roaring  Girl,  Mrs.  Gallipot,  in  order  to 
gull  money  out  of  her  husband  for  her  paramour,  Laxton,  tells  him 
that  she  was  once  contracted  to  Laxton.  He  thereupon  bribes  Laxton 
not  to  bring  suit,  and  furthermore  says  to  his  wife, 

"If  thou  shouldst  wrestle  with  him  at  the  law, 
Th'art  sure  to  fall,  no  odd  flight,  no  prevention." 

In  The  Miseries  of  Enforced  Marriage,  a  private  contract  occurs  between 
Scarborow  and  Clare,  after  which  he  says  to  her  father, 

"Your  daughter's  made  my  wife,  and  I  your  son." 

When  his  uncle  later  tries  to  contract  him  to  another,  he  objects  on 
the  ground  that  it  would  make  him  an  adulterer,  "my  babes  being 
bastards,  and  a  whore  my  wife."  When  this  marriage  is  finally  forced 
upon  him,  Clare,  hearing  of  it,  says, 

"Whoe'er  shall  marry  me 
I'm  but  his  whore,  live  in  adultery." 
*  It  was  presumed  that  twelve  and  fourteen  were  the  ages  of  puberty 
for  girls  and  boys  respectively.  The  validity  of  a  marriage  rested  on 
whether  or  not  both  were  capable  of  sexual  union  rather  than  on  their 
actual  ages.  For  examples  of  child  marriages,  divorces,  etc.,  see  Fur- 
nivall's  reprint  of  the  Chester  records  under  the  title  of  Child-Marriages, 


6  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

marriages  upon  infants  in  arms,  their  parents  consenting, 
and  recognized  the  age  of  seven  as  that  when  parental  con- 
sent was  no  longer  absolutely  necessary.  Such  marriages, 
however,  were  voidable  by  either  party  upon  coming  of 
age  (fourteen  and  twelve  respectively)  unless  cohabitation 
had  taken  place.  As  indicated  above,  a  valid  but  clan- 
destine marriage  might  be  made  merely  by  sexual  inter- 
course preceded  by  promises  to  marry;  but  all  such  unions 
were  stigmatized  by  public  and  ecclesiastical  opinion.  In 
order  to  increase  the  publicity  of  marriage  and  thus  diminish 
the  number  of  those  clandestinely  made,  the  practice  of 
publishing  banns  grew  up  and  became  pretty  general  by 
the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Furthermore,  only 
certain  times  of  the  year  were  proper  for  marriage,^  although 
in  case  this  rule  was  not  observed,  the  contract  was  none 
the  less  valid. 

The  final  recognized  step  in  the  consummation  of  matri- 
mony was  the  performance  of  the  marriage  right  of  carnalis 
copula  or  bodily  union.     Legislation  concerning  the  effect 

Divorces,  etc.,  and  also  the  references  in  Howard,  Hist.  Mat.  Inst.,  I, 
357-8.  Children  have  been  married,  divorced,  and  widowed  before 
reaching  puberty. 

Heroines  of  tender  years  are  not  uncommon  in  Elizabethan  drama. 
Juliet,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  only  thirteen.  Manthea  in  English- 
men  for  my  Money  at  the  age  of  twelve  cries, 

"Good  God,  how  abject  is  this  single  life. 
I'll  not  abide  it." 

^  The  prohibited  times  varied  somewhat  in  different  locaUties  but 
always  occurred  at  the  three  chief  sacred  seasons  of  the  year.  They 
embraced  Advent  and  shortly  after,  a  part  of  Lent,  and  from  Rogation 
Sunday  to  Trinity.  For  further  details,  see  Jeaffreson,  I,  285  ff.  Since 
the  Reformation,  no  season  has  been  prohibited,  but  the  former  ones 
continued  to  be  observed  for  some  time.  In  the  fifteenth  century,  a 
marriage  had  to  take  place  before  twelve  o'clock,  just  as  it  must  be 
before  three  in  England  today.  However,  all  these  obstructions  could 
be  set  aside  by  the  purchase  of  a  special  license. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

of  the  performance  or  omission  of  this  act  was  scant,  but 
the  opinions  of  the  church  fathers,  which  in  the  absence  of 
canons  on  the  subject  had  the  force  of  law,  were  both  num- 
erous and  conflicting.  From  our  discussion  of  spousals,  it 
will  be  seen  how  great  was  the  importance  laid  upon  this 
act,  as  it  might  in  itself  convert  either  form  of  spousals  into 
actual  marriage  or  might  legalize  the  marriage  of  children 
under  age.  It  is  impossible  here  to  go  into  the  effect  of 
its  total  omission;  it  will  be  enough  for  our  purpose  to  say- 
that  in  such  a  case  an  applicant  for  divorce  might  find  a 
court  which  would  thereby  make  a  point  in  his  favor,  and 
again  he  might  not.^  At  any  rate,  a  marriage  was  regarded 
as  much  more  firmly  cemented  if  copulation  had  taken  place. 
From  the  foregoing  discussion,  it  will  readily  be  seen  that 
the  question  of  divorce,  or  rather  of  annulment,  which  turned 
on  the  original  validity  and  subsequent  nature  of  a  marriage, 
was  one  of  the  most  vexing  problems  that  the  church  ever 
brought  upon  itself.  We  are  not  here  concerned  with  civil 
legislation,  for  although  it  may  have  differed  in  a  few  details 
where  rights  of  property  and  so  forth  were  involved,  it  left 
the  actual  granting  of  divorces  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
church.2    Such  cases  were  usually  decided  in  local  ecclesi- 

1  Henry  VIII,  in  seeking  a  divorce  from  his  wife  Catherine,  tried  to 
establish  the  fact  that  her  previous  marriage  with  Arthur  had  been  con- 
summated by  bodily  knowledge;  but  although  the  judges  seem  to  have 
been  convinced  that  such  was  the  case,  it  is  far  from  clear  whether  this 
decision  had  any  real  effect  in  the  suit. 

*  Milton,  with  his  usual  acumen,  says  on  this  point:  "The  Popes  of 
Rome,  perceiving  the  great  revenue  and  high  authority  it  would  give 
them  even  over  Princes,  to  have  the  judging  and  deciding  of  such  a  main 
consequence  in  the  life  of  man  as  was  divorce;  wrought  so  upon  the 
superstition  of  those  ages  as  to  divest  them  of  that  right."  Prose  Works ^ 
II,  53.  Almost  the  same  language  had  been  previously  used  in  the  act 
by  which  Henry  VIII  tried  to  reform  the  abuses  of  the  church  in  divorce 
matters.    See  p.  62,  below. 


t 


8  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

astical  courts,  but  might  be  carried  to  Rqme  on  appeal. 
In  the  Roman  CathoUc  Church,  there  never  has  been  any- 
such  thing  as  divorce  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word.  Here 
the  term  was  used  as  a  general  one  to  include  two  types  of 
separation,  neither  of  which  corresponds  to  the  divorce  of 
today.  The  first  of  these  was  divortium  a  mensa  et  thorOf 
which  was  simply  a  separation  and  did  not  allow  either 
party  to  remarry.^  The  causes  for  this  were  various,  but 
those  usually  plead  were  adultery,  heresy  or  apostasy,  and 
cruelty.  The  second  type  was  divortium  a  vinculo  matri- 
monii, which  took  the  form  of  a  declaration  that  the  mar- 
riage had  been  illegally  contracted  and  was  therefore  null 
and  void  ah  initio,  that  any  children  born  during  it  were 
bastards,  and  that  either  party  might  marry  again  without 
further  ado.^  The  state  of  abuse  into  which  matrimony 
had  fallen  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  there  were  more 
grounds  for  the  annulment  of  marriage  than  for  separation 
a  mensa  et  thoro. 

This  brings  us  to  another  large  and  vaguely  settled  ques- 
tion, as  to  what  conditions  prohibited  a  marriage,  or  if  it 
were  already  made,  what  causes,  previously  existing,  were 
sufficient  to  nullify  it.     Here  we  must  distinguish,  for  there 

1  Nevertheless,  second  marriages  after  such  a  separation  were  prac- 
ticed to  a  certain  extent,  either  by  legal  manipulation  or  by  pleading 
St.  Paul's  words,  "It  is  better  to  marry  than  to  burn,"  and  obtaining 
an  indulgence.  For  a  discussion  of  this  practice  in  England,  see  below, 
p.  87,  n  1.  The  separation  a  mensa  et  thoro  is,  of  course,  the  only  type  of 
divorce  granted  by  the  Catholic  Church  today,  except  the  complete 
annulment  of  marriage. 

2  Up  to  1337,  children  were  not  bastardized  if  their  parents  had 
married  in  ignorance  of  an  existing  impediment.  After  that  date,  both 
civil  and  church  law  held  them  to  be  illegitimate  if  a  divorce  was  ob- 
tained; otherwise  they  were  legitimate,  although  legal  grounds  for 
divorce  actually  existed.  For  further  discussion  of  these  points,  see 
Pollock  and  Maitland,  History  of  English  Law,  II,  373  ff. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

were  a  number,  of  impediments  which  obstructed  marriage 
but  which  if  unobserved  were  not  weighty  enough  to  have 
any  further  effect  except  that  of  subjecting  the  offenders 
to  the  discipUne  of  the  church.  These  were  set  forth  in 
verse  form  as  follows: 

"Ecclesiae  vetitum,  tempus,  sponsalia,  votum 
Impediunt  fieri,  permittunt  facta  teneri."  ^ 

The  impediments  which  forbade  marriage  and  annulled  it 
completely  if  already  contracted  were,  ''poetically  com- 
prised": 

''Error,  conditio,  votum,  cognitio,  crimen, 
Cultits  disparitas,  vis,  ordo,  ligamen,  honestas, 
Si  sis  afiinis,  si  forte  coire  nequibis,  — 
Haec  socianda  vetant  connuhia,  facta  retractant.^'  - 

*  This  verse  is  taken  from  Renton  and  Phillimore,  Comparative  Law 
of  Marriage  and  Divorce,  p.  24.  Its  source  is  not  given,  and  I  have  not 
seen  it  elsewhere.  The  impediments  are:  veto  by  the  church,  improper 
time,  precontract  (i.e.  de  futuro),  and  informal  vows. 

2  This  verse  is  given  by  Hemmingius,  Libellus  de  Coniugio,  Repudio, 
&  Divortio,  p.  137,  by  the  author  of  A  Curiaine  Lecture,  p.  141,  who 
attributes  it  to  Cardinal  Cajetanus,  and  by  Godolphin,  Repertorium 
Canonicum,  p.  493,  who  attributes  it  to  Thomas  Aquinas.  Renton 
and  PhilUmore,  Comparative  Law  of  Marriage  and  Divorce,  p.  19,  cite 
a  similar  verse,  except  that  the  third  line  is  increased  to  two,  in  which 
aetas  (minority)  and  si  clandestinas  et  impos  (if  clandestine  and  uncon- 
summated)  are  added.  The  source  of  the  verse  is  not  given.  Coudert, 
Marriage  and  Divorce  Laws  in  Europe,  p.  7,  gives  still  another  and 
longer  verse,  not  mentioning  the  source,  which  adds  the  further 
impediments  of  amentia  (insanity)  and  raptio  (abduction). 

Erasmus,  Matrimonii  Christiani  Institutio,  f.  e6  fif.,  discusses  the  im- 
pediments at  great  length,  but  does  not  distinguish  between  the  abso- 
lute and  the  prohibitive.  He  mentions  eighteen  altogether:  interdictum 
ecclesiae  sive  generate,  tempus  anni,  conditio  (i.e.  honesta,  turpis,  indif- 
ferens,  impossibilis,  et  hinc  mille  casuum  varietatis),  error,  votum  castitatus, 
ordo,  cognitio,  adoptio  et  arrogatio  (adoptantur  filii  familias,  arrogant 
qui  sui  juris  sunt),  cognatio  spiritualis,  affinitas,  publica  honestas,  con- 
suetudo  sive  constitutio,  crimen,  dispar  cultus  {hoc  est  diver sa  religio), 


10  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

As  interpreted  by  the  church,  these  impediments  were  re- 
spectively: mistaken  identity,  certain  conditions  of  one 
party  unknown  to  the  other,  solemn  religious  vows,  relation- 
ship within  the  forbidden  degrees,^  criminality ,2  difference 
of  religious  faith,  fear  (caused  by  threats  etc.),  membership 
in  holy  orders,  prior  marriage  or  contract  de  praesenti  (with 
any  one  still  living),  lack  of  public  decency,  affinity,'  and 
impotency.*  It  may  be  seen  from  the  number  and  diver- 
sity of  these  causes  that  a  marriage  might  be  annulled  for 

metus,  praecedens  obligatio,  inhabilitas  corporum  ad  usum  matrimonii, 
ubi  dissidium  est  animorum  et  inamahilis  cantio  est.  Commenting  upon 
these  impediments  and  their  elBFects,  he  says,  "Quorum  alia  sunt  eius 
generis,  ut  non  dirimant  contractum,  sed  ohsistant  contrahendo,  &  con- 
temptorem  impedimenti  crimini  faciant  obnoxium,  non  depellant  ah  uxore: 
alia  dirimunt  ad  tempus:  alia  &  contrahendo  obsistunt,  &  contractum 
distrahunt.  Qu^edam  dirimunt  matrimonium  ratum,  non  dirimunt 
consummatum.  .  .  .  Rursus  alia  dirimunt  coniunctum  domesticum  aut 
societatem  thori,  alia  restituunt  marem  &  foeminam  in  integrum.  .  .  . 
lam  circa  unumquodque  impedimentorum  mille  quaestionum  examina 
pu^naeque  innumerabiles  opinionum  humanarum."    Op.  dt.,  f.  e7. 

Wm.  Harrington,  the  first  to  set  forth  the  impediments  in  English, 
in  1528,  agrees  as  well  as  can  be  expected  with  those  given  here.  See 
below,  p.  72,  n.  2. 

1  Cognatio  or  relationship  was  of  three  kinds:  (1)  blood  relation- 
ship within  four  degrees  (before  1215  within  seven  degrees) ;  (2)  spirit- 
ual relationship  (abolished  in  1563),  which  existed  between  all  persons 
taking  part  in  the  baptism  or  confirmation  of  a  child;  (3)  relationship 
by  adoption,  forbidding  marriage  between  adopter  (or  his  wife)  with 
the  adopted  and  between  the  adopted  and  the  children  of  the  adopter. 

2  By  criminality  was  meant  one  of  two  things:  (1)  the  murder  of  a 
person  who  obstructed  a  contemplated  marriage,  and  (2)  adultery  with 
promise  of  marriage  at  the  death  of  obstructing  person. 

'  Affinity  existed  between  each  party  and  the  relatives  of  the  other 
both  in  the  case  of  a  married  couple  and  in  that  of  a  couple  who  had  had 
illicit  relations. 

*  For  further  explanation  of  the  impediments,  with  qualifications, 
exceptions,  ^tc,  see  Godolphin,  p.  492  fif.,  Renton  and  Phillimore, 
p.  19  fif.,  and  Coudert,  p.  7  fif. 


INTRODUCTION  11         ^ 

almost  any  reason  that  the  church  wished  to  sanction  in  , 
any  particular  case,  a  condition  of  affairs  that  was  widely  {^^ 
taken  advantage  of.     '*No  exercise  of  its  power  yielded  u 
more  money,  or  caused  more  scandal.    So  tangled  was  the  •'^ 
casuistry  respecting  marriage,  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  that  it  might  be  said  that,  for  a  sufficient 
consideration,  a  canonical  flaw  might  be  found  in  almost 
any  marriage."  ^ 

The  impediments  which  were  surest  of  recognition  and 
which  were  oftenest  plead,  were  precontract,  that  is  spousals 
de  praesenti,  and  consanguinity  or  affinity  between  the  con- 
tracting parties.  Voluminous  and  widespread  was  the 
writing  on  the  latter  case,  especially  after  Henry  VIIFs 
divorce,  opinion  differing  chiefly  as  to  how  many  degrees 
of  relationship  should  be  forbidden,  and  in  Henry's  suit 
as  to  whether  the  Pope  had  exceeded  his  authority  in  grant- 
ing the  original  dispensation  by  which  the  King  was  enabled 
to  marry  Catherine.^ 

The  Reformation  in  Germany,  in  regard  to  matrimonial 
affairs,  was  like  the  voice  of  John  the  Baptist  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  but  unfortunately  its  message  was  hampered  to  no 
small  extent  by  the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  thought  there 
still  tried  to  reconcile  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  with  ' 
the  reason  of  every-day  demands.^    Consequently  the  chief  V- 
actual  result  was  to  set  ideas  to  work  which  ultimately  ^ 
brought  some  kind  of  order  out  of  chaos,  but  which  for  a 
century  after  Luther's  time  could  accomplish  very  little  in 

1  Thwing,  The  Family,  p.  83. 

2  For  an  account  of  the  English  writing  on  the  subject  of  the  royal 
divorce,  see  below,  Appendix  A. 

'  Almost  all  the  leaders  of  the  German  Reformation  contributed 
something  to  the  discussion  of  marriage  and  divorce,  some  of  them 
writing  books  on  this  subject  alone.  For  further  account,  see  Milton 
Prose  Works,  II,  231  ff.,  Woolsey,  Divorce  and  Divorce  Legislation, 
p.  126  ff. 


12  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

themselves.  The  most  important  step  taken  was  to  deny 
the  sacramental  character  of  marriage,  which  Luther  did 
in  his  De  Captivitate  Bahylonica  in  1520.^  He  also  wished 
to  do  away  with  the  distinction  between  spousals  de  futuro 
and  de  praesenti  and  to  make  all  such  contracts  either  simple 
betrothals,  Uke  the  present-day  engagement,  or  else  mar- 
riages per  se;  but  this  proposition  was  not  accepted.  With 
the  greatest  evil  in  marriage  and  divorce  legislation,  —  the 
multiplicity  of  impediments  and  the  consequent  ease  with 
which  a  divorce  a  vinculo  matrimonii  might  be  obtained  — 
the  Reformers  did  nothing  at  all,  although  they  seem  to 
have  realized  the  need  of  some  action  in  regard  to  these 
conditions.  In  the  field  of  divorce  itself,  perhaps  the  great- 
est immediate  results  were  attained.  Separation,  or  divorce 
a  mensa  et  thoro,  was  abolished  altogether,  and  in  place  of 
it  was  estabUshed  a  divorce  resembling  the  modern  type, 
by  which  the  children  remained  legitimate  but  the  innocent 
party  might  remarry  without  further  suit  in  either  spiritual 
or  civil  court.2  For  such  divorce  the  ordinances  of  Witten- 
berg in  1534  and  1553  give  two  recognized  causes,  adultery 
and  desertion.^    Finally,  all  questions  and  suits  in  regard 

^  In  this  he  was  followed  by  Calvin  in  his  Institutiones,  1536,  and  in 
the  discipline  of  the  Geneva  church,  which  became  the  model  for  the 
church  discipline  of  Holland  and  Scotland  and  influenced  the  Thirty^ 
nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England. 

2  This  was  the  origin  of  divorce  as  it  is  practiced  today  in  Protes- 
tant countries.  The  only  difference  between  a  modern  divorce  and 
one  under  the  German  Reformation,  is  that  nowadays  either  party 
may  remarry. 

'  Divorce  for  adultery  was  based  on  the  words  of  Christ  {Malt. 
V,  32,  and  XIX,  9) ;  that  for  desertion  was  based  on  those  of  St.  Paul 
(I  Cor.  VII,  5).  But  the  latter  was  taken  in  a  more  general  sense  than 
the  literal  meaning  of  the  word,  and  included  other  causes,  such  as  the 
refusal  of  the  marriage  right.  The  Wittenberg  ordinances  expressed 
the  most  conservative  opinion.  That  of  Zurich  in  1525  stated  that 
adultery,  desertion,  etc.,  were  not  only  causes  for  divorce  but  represented 


INTRODUCTION  13 

to  marriage  and  divorce  were  placed  partly  in  the  hands  of\ 
the  parish  clergy  and  partly  in  those  of  secular  judges.'' 
Owing  to  the  confusion  of  opinion  arising  from  this  arrange- 
ment, the  result  was  hardly  an  improvement  over  the  old 
system  of  jurisdiction  except  in  principle;    and  this  fact,  v 
together  with  the  failure  of  the  Reformers  to  attack  the 
evils  of  impediments  and  nullification,  in  the  end  produced 
conditions  which  were  actually  much  the  same  as  those 
preceding,  except  for  the  possibility  of  remarriage  after  a 
divorce  for  adultery  or  desertion. 

What  has  been  said  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  «-- 
general  prior  to  Luther's  time,  applies  also  to  England  before  u 
Henry  VIII  precipitated  the  whole  Reformation  question  ^^_, 
by  his  divorce  from  Catherine.    Some  one  has  made  a  re- 
mark to  the  effect  that  Henry  first  saw  the  light  of  the 
Reformation  in  the  shining  eyes  of  Anne  Boleyn;    and 
although  this  is  no  doubt  true,  the  conditions  he  broughti^ 
into  the  forum  of  public  opinion  were  real  faults  in  civil  and  ^ 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction;   and  however  insincere  may  have  ^ 
been  his  own  concern  in  the  general  question,  his  personal  ^ 
attitude  and  the  publicity  of  his  case  instigated  thought  ^ 
and  argument,  which  by  provoking  a  wide  controversy,  l 
finally  resulted  in  great  benefit  to  the  realm. 


II.  Practice  and  Customs  of  Marriage 

As  a  matter  of  actual  practice,  aside  from  ecclesiastical 
or  civil  concern,  we  may  say  that  marriages  were  of  three 
kinds,  —  those  of  children,'  those  clandestinely  performed 
by  persons  either  under  or  over  the  age  of  puberty,  and 

also  the  standard  of  abuse  which  it  was  designed  to  remedy,  "and  to 
the  judge  it  is  left  to  decide  what  other  causes  shall  be  put  by  their 
side."  Woolsey,  p.  132.  For  further  discussion,  see  Woolsey,  ibid., 
and  Howard,  II,  60  ff. 


14  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

those  openly  and  formally  made  with  the  blessing  of  the 
church  and  the  celebration  of  friends.  As  we  are  interested 
in  the  practices  and  customs  herein  involved,  as  well  as 
the  legal  aspects  of  the  contract,  we  must  examine  briefly 
each  of  these  three  methods  of  marriage. 

Infants,  that  is  ''those  Younglings  and  Babes  which  as 
yet  cannot  speak"  could  not  effect  any  kind  of  contract, 
but  their  parents  could  "make  marriages"  for  them  regard- 
less of  their  age.  These  so-called  marriages,  however,  had 
only  the  force  of  promises  de  futuro  and  were  of  no  legal 
standing.  The  youngest  couple  reported  in  the  Chester 
records  is  that  of  John  Somerford,  age  three,  and  Jane 
Brerton,  age  two.  The  testimony,  descriptive  of  the  wed- 
ding, given  later  at  John's  suit  for  divorce  (when  fifteen 
years  old),  was  as  follows: 

"Johannes  Somerforth  .  .  .  dicit,  that  he  was  present  bie, 
when  John  Somerforth  and  Jane  Brerton  were  maried  together  in 
the  parish  church  at  Brerton  about  xij  yeres  ago.  ...  He  sales 
that  he  carried  the  said  John  in  his  armes,  beinge  at  the  tyme  of 
the  said  Mariage  about  iij  yeres  of  age,  and  spake  somme  of  the 
wordes  of  Matrimonye,  that  the  said  John,  bie  reason  of  his  younge 
age,  cold  not  speake  hym  selfe,  holdinge  him  in  his  armes  all  the 
while  the  wordes  of  Matrimonie  were  in  speakinge/  And  one  James 
Holford  caried  the  said  Jane  in  his  armes,  beinge  at  the  said 
tyme  about  ij°  yeres  of  age,  and  spake  all,  or  the  most  parte  of,  the 
wordes  of  matrimony  for  her;  and  so  held  her  still  in  his  armes."  ^ 

The  reasons  for  such  child  marriages  were  several.  First, 
the*  parents  were  fulfilling  the  responsibility  of  settling 
their  children  in  marriage,  or  at  least  taking  steps  thereto, 
which  was  one  of  the  recognized  duties  of  parenthood. 
Secondly,  a  peaceful  treaty  or  alliance  was  often  formed  by 
families  or  countries  hostile  to'  one  another  by  means  of 
such  a  union.     Thirdly,  in  case  of  the  death  of  a  father, 

1  Furnivall,  Child-Marriages,  etc.,  p.  25. 


INTRODUCTION  15 

by  the  laws  of  feudalism,  the  crown  or  its  grantee  had  the 
right  of  the  persons  and  estates  of  the  children  and  might 
sell  them  to  its  own  advantage;  this  the  parents  obviated 
by  marrying  their  children  as  soon  as  possible.  Fourthly, 
if  the  child  was  seven  years  old,  the  parents  might  benefit 
by  the  marriage  settlements.  It  cannot  be  determined 
how  common  these  child  marriages  were,  but  references  to 
them  are  sufficiently  numerous  to  make  it  clear  that  the 
practice  was  by  no  means  out  of  the  ordinary,  especially 
among  noblemen.  Becon,  writing  about  1562  of  the  causes 
of  the  low  esteem  in  which  marriage  was  held,  says:  ''First 
as  touching  men  of  nobilitie,  wee  see  dayly  by  experyence 
that  they  for  the  moste  parte  marrye  theyr  chyldren  at 
theyr  pleasure  whan  they  are  verye  yonge,  euen  to  suche 
as  wyll  geue  them  most  mony  for  them,  as  men  use  to  sel 
theyr  horses,  oxen,  sheepe,  or  any  other  cattel.  Who  that 
wyl  geue  most  mony,  shalbe  sonest  sped.'^  ^  Although 
it  was  a  deplorable  state  of  affairs  that  children  should  have 
been  married  for  financial  considerations  only,  the  duty  of 
parents  to  provide  for  their  children  in  marriage  is  so  clearly 
expressed  in  the  domestic  conduct  books  of  the  time  that 
it  is  only  fair  to  suppose  that  the  impulse  to  settle  them  as 
soon  as  possible  proceeded  in  most  cases  from  worthy 
motives. 

^  Becon,  Worckes,  Pt.  I,  f.  ccccclxiiii.  It  may  be  objected  that  the 
children  could  break  these  contracts  upon  coming  of  age;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  "of  age"  in  those  days  meant  twelve  and  fourteen 
instead  of  eighteen  and  twenty-one,  and  it  is  hardly  to  be  thought  that 
such  children  would  be  able  to  act  for  their  own  best  interests  even  if 
they  realized  what  their  rights  or  their  interests  were.  If  the  marriage 
was  made  at  the  parents'  instigation  after  the  children  were  of  age, 
whether  the  latter  knew  what  they  were  doing  or  not,  it  was  accom- 
plished once  and  for  all.  Milton  calls  this  practice  a  "savage  inhuman- 
ity," and  says  that  "the  law  which  gives  not  all  freedom  of  divorce  to 
any  creatiu-e  endued  with  reason  so  assassinated,  is  next  to  cruelty." 
Prose  Works,  I,  373. 


16  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

Clandestine  marriages  were  those  performed  by  children 
over  seven  years  of  age,  either  publicly  or  secretly,  without 
parental  consent,  or  those  performed  secretly  by  youths  of 
fourteen  and  girls  of  twelve.  In  either  case,  the  church 
condemned  the  practice  but  recognized  the  marriage  as 
valid;  but,  as  stated  above,  in  the  case  of  children  under  the 
age  of  puberty,  the  marriage  had  to  be  ratified  later  by 
both.  An  interesting  wedding  is  cited  in  the  Chester 
records  as  having  been  clandestinely  performed  by  a  priest 
between  a  boy  of  eleven  and  a  girl,  "a.  bigge  damsell  & 
manageable,"  as  follows: 

''Jacobus  Hartley  .  .  .  Dicit,  that  he  hard  say  that  the  said 
James  and  Anne  articulate,  were  Maried  in  the  parish  Church  of 
Colne,  upon  the  xij*^  even  in  the  Christmas  shalbe  v  yeres,  comme 
the  Twelfth  even  next,  about  x  of  the  Clocke  in  the  night,  —  the 
said  James  at  that  tjnne  beinge  about  xj  or  vnder  xij  yeres  of  age, — 
without  the  consent  of  any  of  his  frendes,  bie  one  Sir  Roger  Blakey, 
then  Curate  of  Colne  ...  he  saies,  that  the  same  night,  this  depo- 
nent was  in  the  house  of  Christopher  Hartley  of  WwUer,  vncle  to  the 
said  James  libellate,  and  sawe  when  the  said  James  [Ballard]  was 
brought  into  the  said  house  about  Midnight  bie  ij"  fellowes,  which 
(as  this  Deponent  supposethe)  had  bene  at  the  said  Mariage.  And 
in  the  morowe  after,  the  same  James  [Ballard]  declarid  vnto  his 
Vnckle,  that  the  said  Anne  had  intised  hym  with  two  Apples,  to  go 
with  her  to  Colne,  and  to  marry  her.  .  .  .  And  further  he  saieth, 
that  the  said  Curate  was  ponished  by  the  Archbushop  of  York  his 
grace,  for  marieng  at  inconvenient  tymes  and  vnlawfuU  persons."  ^ 

Between  persons  of  age,  clandestine  marriages  were  made 
simply  by  exchanging  such  words  as  ''I  take  thee  for  my 
wife"  and  ^'I  take  thee  for  my  husband."  Such  a  con- 
tract was  in  name  a  mere  spousal  de  praesenti,  but  in  effect 
it  was  a  marriage,  and  if  it  was  followed  by  cohabitation, 
it  became  automatically  recognized  as  such.      Swinburne, 

*  Fumivall,  p.  45. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

writing  about  1600,  says  on  this  point,  "Albeit  there  be 
no  Witnesses  of  the  Contract,  yet  the  parties  having  verily 
(though  secretly)  Contracted  Matrimony,  they  are  very 
Man  and  Wife  before  God;  neither  can  either  of  them 
with  safe  Conscience  Marry  elsewhere,  so  long  as  the  other 
party  liveth."  ^  The  contracted  parties  were  man  and  wife 
before  the  law  as  well  as  before  God,  although  the  lack  of 
witnesses  made  the  proof  of  the  marriage  difficult.  The 
form  of  such  spousals  might  be  anything  from  a  simple 
promise  to  the  complete  ceremonial  for  public  spousals 
as  far  as  could  be  managed  under  the  circumstances.  At 
least  the  bride  and  groom  might  exchange  a  handclasp  and 
a  kiss,  both  of  which  had  from  ancient  times  been  associated 
with  the  marriage  contract.  Great  significance  was  also 
attached  to  the  gift  of  a  ring,  usually  given  by  the  man  to 
the  woman  or  by  each  to  the  other,  and  one  was  always 
provided,  if  it  could  possibly  be  afforded,  even  in  the  most 
secret  marriages. 

As  has  already  been  said,  both  the  child  marriage  and 
the  union  by  means  of  spousals  only  were  somewhat  irreg- 
ular though  not  unusual.  The  former  had  to  be  ratified 
at  the  children's  coming  of  age,  and  the  latter  was  always 
regarded  with  disfavor  and  was  the  cause  of  much  legislative 
dispute.  In  the  regular  course  of  events  leading  to  mar- 
riage, both  spousals,  either  de  futuro  or  de  praesenti,  and 
the  solemnization  by  the  church  of  the  contract  so  made, 
were  conducted  openly  and  with  a  certain  amount  of  set 
formahty.  A  marriage  might  include  both  forms  of  spousals 
as  well  as  the  church  celebration,  but  this  would  naturally 
occur  seldom,  as  the  latter  embraced  all  the  necessary  vows 
and  the  ecclesiastical  benediction  in  one  service.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  contract  at  all  was  required  before  the  wed- 
ding ceremony,  for  the  same  reason.    However^  the  contract 

1  Swinburne,  Treatise  of  Spousals,  p.  87. 


■^ 
V 


18  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

itself,  whether  made  in  secret,  in  a  private  gathering  of 
.^friends,  or  in  the  church  service,  was  the  essential  feature  of 
V  matrimony,  the  ceremony  of  the  church  being  quite  second- 
ary in  importance.  On  this  point  the  publisher  of  Swin- 
burne's book  says,  "In  all  Marriages  Solemnized  after  the 
most  strict  manner,  the  Contract  of  Parties  is  the  principal 
Ingredient  and  most  essential  Part,  all  other  Matters 
being  only  as  it  were  Foreign  and  Extrinsical  to  its  Nature."  ^ 
In  regard  to  the  forms  of  spousals  de  futuro  and  de  prae- 
sentif  they  were  so  nearly  alike,  in  whatever  sentences  they 
were  expressed,  that  we  may  say  that  if  the  words  spoken 
gave  the  impression  that  the  parties  at  that  moment  took 
one  another  in  the  contract  of  matrimony,  the  spousals 
were  de  praesenti;  if  the  words  implied  a  promise  against 
the  future,  a  de  futuro  spousal  was  estabhshed.^  Indeed, 
the  simple  intention  to  marry,  though  accompanied  by  the 
wrong  formula,  was  sufficient  to  effect  the  contract.  Swin- 
burne says  here,  ''Albeit  the  words  of  the  Contract,  neither 
of  their  own  natural  signification,  neither  yet  by  common 
use  and  acceptation  conclude  Matrimony;  Yet  whereas 
the  Parties  do  thereby  intend  to  Contract  Matrimony, 
they  are  inseparable  man  and  wife,  not  only  before  God, 
but  also  before  Man;  in  case  their  meaning  may  lawfully 
appear."  ^  Furthermore,  for  the  protection  of  innocent 
girls  against  evil  men,  "when  the  words  of  the  Contract 
are  indifferent  or  equally  flexible  to  the  signification  of 
Spousals  de  futuro,  or  Matrimony;    In  this  Case  the  Law 

*  Swinburne,  f.  A3. 

2  Howard,  I,  340  ff,  brings  considerable  evidence  to  bear  that  the 
distinction  between  de  fviuro  and  de  praesenti  spousals  was  not  under- 
stood or  recognized  by  the  humble  people,  but  was  in  fact  mere  eccle- 
siastical hair-splitting.  This  was  also  Luther's  view.  Swinburne 
acknowledges  the  difficulty  but  upholds  the  distinction  at  length. 
Ibid.,  sees.  Ill,  X,  XII. 

3  Swinburne,  p.  87. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

presumeth  Matrimony  to  be  contracted,  except  in  certain 
cases.''  ^  Spousals  might  be  qualij&ed  to  some  extent  by 
the  stipulation  of  certain  conditions.  This  subject  is  treated 
at  length  by  Swinburne,^  but  is  not  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance to  be  considered  here. 

The  public  spousal  was  performed  either  at  the  bride's  ^ 
house  or  at  the  church  porch,  but  in  either  case  the  priest  ^^^ 
was  recognized  as  the  official  witness.  Here  the  vows 
were  exchanged  for  either  a  future  or  a  present  union,  but 
the  couple  was  not  pronounced  to  be  man  and  wife,  nor  were 
they  supposed  to  cohabit  until  the  contract  was  solemnized 
by  the  church  ceremony  for  marriage.  Next  to  the  vows, 
the  exchange  of  gifts,  principally  from  the  man  to  the  woman, 
was  the  most  important  feature  of  spousals.  The  ring  of 
betrothal  was  worn  on  the  right  hand.  A  pubHc  spousal 
in  full  form  is  described  by  the  priest  in  Twelfth  Night 
between  Olivia  and  Sebastian: 

"A  contract  of  eternal  bond  of  love, 
Confirmed  by  mutual  joinder  of  your  hands, 
Attested  by  the  holy  close  of  lips, 
Strengthened  by  interchangement  of  your  rings; 
And  all  this  ceremony  and  compact 
Sealed  in  my  function,  by  my  testimony."  » 

^  Swinburne,  p.  88.  Throughout  his  treatise,  Swinburne  uses  the 
terms  matrimony  and  spousals  de  praesenti  as  synonyms. 

2  Ibid.,  sec.  XII. 

'  Shakespeare,  op.  dt.,  V,  1.  In  All's  Well,  II,  3,  a  contract  is  per- 
formed by  the  King  between  Helena  and  Bertram.  The  ceremony  is 
appointed  to  be  held  that  night,  and  the  "solemn  feast"  later.  A  spou- 
sal similar  to  the  Twelfth  Night  one  takes  place  in  Reade's  The  Cloister 
and  the  Hearth,  although  it  is  not  described  in  detail.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  although  this  union  was  not  solemnized  by  the  church,  the 
birth  of  a  child  was  no  stigma  to  the  bride,  except  for  the  fact  that  her 
"bethrothal  paper"  was  missing. 


20  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

Here  we  find  all  the  principal  details,  the  handfasting,  the 
kiss,  the  exchange  of  rings,  and  the  benediction  of  the  priest. 
But,  so  far  as  we  know,  there  were  no  other  witnesses.  An 
espousal  or  a  marriage  was  supposed  to  be  witnessed  by 
two  persons,  but  it  seems  likely  that  the  presence  of  a  priest 
served  just  as  well. 

The  time  between  the  performance  of  spousals  and  the 
celebration  of  marriage  varied.  Since  the  publishing  of 
banns  was  usually  done  on  the  three  successive  Sundays 
after  the  spousals,  a  space  of  about  three  weeks  was  the 
proper  minimum;  on  the  other  hand,  it  might  extend  to 
years,  as  is  often  the  case  with  engagements  of  today.  The 
banns  publicly  asked  in  church  as  well  as  posted  in  public 
places  of  the  town,  were  devised  to  make  sure  that  no  im- 
pediments existed  which  might  later  invalidate  the  mar- 
riage. In  case  any  of  such  nature  were  discovered,  the 
contract  was  annulled  ipso  facto  without  any  formality  at 
all,  and  was  of  no  force  in  obstructing  a  later  marriage. 
In  Cromwell's  time,  the  betrothed  couple  were  given  the 
choice  of  being  "asked"  on  three  Sundays  in  church  or 
"  cried  "  by  the  town  bellman  on  three  successive  market  days, 
and  it  seems  that  the  latter  method  was  the  more  popular. 

The  modern  marriage  ceremony  originated  in  times  too 
remote  for  us  to  investigate.  The  general  form  and  phrase- 
ology of  it  go  back  to  the  twelfth  century  and  became  per- 
petuated in  England  for  all  succeeding  time,  with  but  slight 
changes,  by  the  first  English  Prayer  Book,^  published  by 

1  Many  things  in  our  modern  ceremony  are  significant  of  old  prac- 
tices. One  may  notice  that  the  vows  made  at  the  chancel  steps  are 
future  in  tense,  corresponding  to  the  ancient  spousals  de  futuro.  The 
bride's  father  accompanies  her  through  these,  as  he  did  formerly,  and 
then  drops  out  altogether,  since  originally  this  was  where  he  presented 
his  daughter's  dower  to  the  groom  and  gave  the  bride  herself  into  the 
hands  of  the  priest.  The  vows  now  made  at  the  altar  rail  are  present 
in  tense,  corresponding  to  the  spousals  de  praesenti.    The  earliest  Prot- 


INTRODUCTION  21 

order  of  Edward  VI  in  1549.    The  service  of  the  Church 
of  England  today  is  practically  the  same  as  this.^    The 
orthodox  ceremony  of  the  period  we  are  studying  used  a 
form  which  was  simply  a  repetition  of  spousals  de  futuro 
and  spousals  de  praesentiy  followed  by  the  minister's  pro- 
nouncing the  couple  to  be  ''man  and  wife"  and  the  prayers 
of  the  congregation  for  the  success  of  the  union.    The  pub- 
lisher of  Swinburne's  book  explains  this  clearly  in  his  preface. 
"In  our  Publick  Office  of  Marriage,"  he  says,  "Spousals  \ 
and  Matrimony  ^  are  united,  and  performed  in  one  con-  ; 
tinned  Act;    When  the  Minister  demands,  Wilt  thou  have 
this  Woman  to  thy  wedded  Wife,  &c.    And  the  Man  answers,  / 
I  will,  and  so  the  Woman  vice  versa,  there's  a  Specimen  of 
Spousals  de  futuro.    When  the  Man  repeats  the  words,  J.  N.\ 
take  thee  N.  to  my  wedded  Wife,  &c.,  and  so  the  Woman  vice  \ 
versa,  there's  the  form  of  Spousals  de  praesenti,  which  in/ 
Substance  are  perfect  Matrimony.  .  .  .    When  the  Min-  , 
ister  adds  his  Benediction,  and  pronounces  them  to  be  Man  i 
and  Wife,  then  'tis  a  perfect  Marriage  to  all  constructions 
and  purposes  in  Law."  ^ 

estant  maxriage  ceremony  seems  to  have  been  drawn  up  by  Bugenhagen 
in  1523.  (See  his  De  Conjunctio  episcopum.)  Since  the  Reformation, 
the  minister  has  performed  the  legal  marriage  in  pronouncing  the 
couple  "man  and  wife."  The  purely  rehgious  part  of  the  ceremony, 
which  followed,  has  been  much  curtailed  in  Protestant  churches,  but 
among  Catholics  the  mass  is  still  used  to  complete  the  marriage.  In  the 
American  branch  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  introductory  part  of 
the  service  has  been  shortened  by  the  omission  of  much  of  the  expla- 
nation of  the  uses  and  abuses  of  matrimony,  which  to  our  taste  is 
ofiFensive  and  ill-timed. 

1  The  practices  of  the  other  churches  and  the  origin  of  their  cere- 
monies are  discussed  in  the  next  chapter. 

2  The  writer  follows  Swinburne's  usage  of  these  terms,  applying  them 
to  spousals  de  futuro  and  de  praesenti  respectively. 

'  Swinburne,  f.  A36*.    It  must  be  remembered  that  this  book  was 
written  after  the  Reformation  and  treats  of  the  Church  of  England  only. 

*  The  letter  6  indicates  the  back  side  or  verso  of  the  folio  mentioned. 


22  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  EELATIONS 

The  marriage  itself,  through  the  part  just  described,  was 
performed  in  the  church  porch;  ^  the  company  then  proceeded 
within  the  church,  the  bridal  couple  entering  the  chancel 
itself;  and  the  blessing  of  God  was  spoken  over  them,  as 
they  kneeled  beneath  the  "  care-cloth, *'  which  was  held  by 
four  ecclesiastics.^  Jeaffreson  picturesquely  describes  a 
wedding  ceremony  in  full  form  as  follows :  ^ 

"To  the  church-porch  .  .  .  the  espoused  woman  of  pre-Refor- 
mation  times,  with  loosened  locks  falling  to  the  waist,  came  on  her 
wedding  day,  preceded  by  minstrels  and  vase-bearer,  conducted  by 
bride-knights  or  pages,  attended  by  maidens,  surrounded  by  her 
kindred,  and  followed  at  a  distance  by  her  father.  There  she  met 
her  espoused  groom  and  became  his  wife,  in  the  presence  of  God, 
the  priest  and  the  people.  If  she  had  previously  gone  through  no 
ceremony  of  public  betrothal,  the  earlier  part  of  the  proceedings 
at  the  porch  corrected  the  omission.  In  answer  to  the  priest's 
inquiry,  she  declared  her  wish  to  obey,  serve,  love,  honor,  and  keep, 
alike  in  sickness  and  in  health,  the  man  who  had  just  before  in  the 
hearing  of  the  congregation  expressed  his  desire  to  be  her  loving, 
worshipful,  and  considerate  husband.  The  marriage  followed  im- 
mediately on  the  utterance  of  her  wish  for  it. 

"She  stood  at  the  groom's  left  hand.  .  .  .  Firmly  pressing  with 
his  grasp  the  unreluctant  hand  .  .  .  the  groom  said,  'I,  *  *,  take 
the  *  *,  to  my  wedded  wyf,  to  have  and  to  holde,  fro  this  day 
forwarde,  for  bettere  for  wers,  for  richere  for  porere;  in  sykeness 
and  in  hele;  tyll  dethe  us  departe:  if  holy  chyrche  it  wol  ordeyne; 

1  Thus  the  Wife  of  Bath,  "Housbondes  at  chirche-dore  she  hadde 
fyve."  Marriage  was  performed  in  the  body  of  the  church  for  the 
first  time  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  but  this  practice  did  not  become 
universal  until  about  a  century  later. 

*  If  either  bride  or  groom  had  been  previously  married,  the  care- 
cloth  was  not  extended  over  them. 

'  Jeafifreson  places  his  description  before  the  Reformation  probably 
because  several  variations  of  usage  came  in  shortly  after  it.  His  ac- 
count, however,  does  very  well  for  the  orthodox  practice  in  post- 
Reformation  days. 


INTRODUCTION  23 

and  therto  I  plight  the  my  trouthe.'  The  hands  of  the  spouses 
having  been  momentarily  separated,  the  fairer  and  gentler  of  the 
two  caught  the  other's  large  hand  with  a  nervous  grasp,  and  said, 
'I,  *  *,  take  thee,  *  *,  to  my  wedded  husbonde,  to  have  and  to 
holde,  fro  this  day  forwarde,  for  better  for  wors;  for  richer  for 
porere;  in  syknesse  and  in  hele;  to  be  bonere  and  buxom,  in  bedde 
and  at  borde,  tyll  dethe  us  departhe,  if  holy  chyrche  it  woU  ordeyne; 
and  therto  I  phght  the  my  trouth.' 

"Next  came  the  use  of  the  ring.  .  .  .  Together  with  the  ring 
the  groom  put  gold  and  silver  on  the  officiating  priest's  book;  and 
after  the  symbol  had  been  duly  consecrated  before  the  assembly, 
...  he  took  it  up  with  the  thumb  and  two  next  fingers  of  his 
right  hand,  and  placed  it  with  pecuUar  ceremoniousness  on  the 
particular  finger  of  the  bride  which  it  was  destined  to  adorn.^ 
'With  this  rynge  I  the  wed,  and  this  gold  and  silver  I  the  give,  and 
with  my  body  I  the  worship,  and  with  all  my  worldely  chatels  I 
the  endow,'  he  uttered  following  the  priest's  voice.  .  .  .  The 
ceremony  of  placing  the  ring  on  the  bride's  ring-finger  was  followed 
by  the  priestly  utterance  of  a  benediction  2  .  .  .  which  was  followed 
by  the  recital  of  verses  of  the  68th  Psahn,  and  the  delivery  of  other 
blessings,  that  terminated  the  proceedings  at  the  church-door." » 

The  real  ceremony  of  the  wedding  was  now  complete,  but 
prayers,  additional  benediction,  and  mass  or  sermon  were 
yet  to  follow  within  the  church.^    These,  however,  were  not 

*  The  third  finger  of  the  left  hand.  In  case  the  maiden  already  wore 
a  bethrothal  ring,  it  became  the  marriage  ring  also  and  was  shifted 
from  the  right  hand  to  the  left. 

*  At  this  point,  in  post-Reformation  times,  the  minister  declared 
the  couple  to  be  "man  and  wife." 

'  Jeaffreson,  I,  88  £f.  Further  details  of  the  trappings  of  marriage 
—  costumes,  music,  the  ring,  the  feast,  etc.  —  are  set  forth  in  this 
interesting  book.  These  are  particularly  valuable  in  throwing  light  on 
the  stage-business  of  contemporary  drama,  as  in  the  case  of  the  wed- 
ding of  Petruchio  and  Katherine  and  the  former's  abuse  of  the  con- 
ventional ceremonials. 

*  After  the  Reformation,  the  mass  was  given  up  as  part  of  the 
marriage  ceremony  when  the  church  dropped  its  use  altogether.    The 


24  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

essential  to  a  marriage.  Before  leaving  the  church,  the 
bridal  party  partook  of  wine,  bread,  and  sweetmeats, 
blessed  by  the  priest,  who  also  gave  the  groom  a  benedic- 
tional  kiss,  which  the  latter  conveyed  to  the  bride. 

The  ceremony  over,  the  whole  company  adjourned  to  the 
house  of  the  groom,  where  a  feast  was  provided.  Indeed, 
the  groom's  friends  usually  started  feasting  before  they 
attended  the  church  ceremony,  a  custom  that  unfortunately 
has  not  yet  altogether  died  out.  This  practice  and  the 
evils  resulting  from  it,  are  commented  upon  by  BuUinger 
in  his  The  Christen  state  of  Matrimony e,  as  follows : 

"But  the  deuell  hath  crept  in  her  also  /  &  though  he  can  not 
make  the  ordinaunce  of  goying  to  the  church  to  be  vtterly  omitted 
&  despised  /  yet  is  he  thus  mightie  /  &  cS  bring  it  to  pas  /  that 
the  ordinuance  is  nothing  regarded  but  blemished  with  all  maner 
of  lightnesse:  In  so  much  that  early  in  the  morning  the  wedding 
people  begynne  to  exceade  in  superflous  eating  &  drinkyng  /  wherof 
they  spytte  vntill  the  halfe  sermon  be  done.  And  whan  they  come 
to  the  preaching  /  they  are  halfe  dronke  /  some  alltogether  /  ther- 
fore  regard  they  nether  the  preaching  ner  prayer  /  but  stonde  ther 
onely  because  of  the  custome.  Such  folkes  also  do  come  vnto  the 
church  with  all  maner  of  pompe  and  pryde  /  &  gorgiousnesse  of 
rayment  and  Jewels.  They  come  with  a  greate  noyse  of  basens  and 
drommes  /  wher  with  they  trouble  the  whole  church  /  &  hindre 
them  in  matters  pertayninge  to  god."  ^ 

The  propriety  of  celebrating  marriages  with  feasting  and 

sermon  was  not  a  part  of  the  ceremony  in  England  until  it  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Reformers.  After  about  1650,  it  was  postponed  until  the 
first  Sunday  after  the  wedding. 

1  Bullinger,  op.  cit.,  f .  L.  BuUinger  was  not  an  Englishman,  but  the 
fact  that  Coverdale,  who  translated  his  work,  retained  this  passage,  is 
evidence  that  the  description  represents  English  practices  accurately 
enough.  That  Coverdale  was  not  above  taking  liberties  with  his 
text  is  shown  by  the  variations  in  the  different  editions  of  the  book 
in  question. 


INTRODUCTION  25 

merrymaking  seems  to  have  been  under  debate,  but  if 
conducted  with  moderation,  both  were  approved  by  clergy 
and  laity  alike,  as  proper  and  fitting,  even  upon  Scriptural 
authority.  William  Perkins,  a  Puritan  of  the  less  radical 
type,  writes  in  1590: 

"Heere  question  is  moued,  whether  mariage  is  to  be  solemnized 
with  mirth  and  feasting.  Answ.  I.  It  is  lawfull  and  warrantable  to 
vse  feasting  and  mirth  at  mariages,  because  these  be  things  indiffer- 
ent, and  wee  haue  examples  thereof  in  the  Scriptures.  .  .  .  Christ 
himselfe  did  approue  the  resort  of  people  to  the  mariage  at  Cana  in 
Galilee,  both  by  his  presence,  and  by  that  honorable  gift  of  sixe 
water-pots  of  best  wine,  loh.  2.  2.  7.  8.  II.  It  is  not  only  lawfull, 
but  conuenient  and  fit  to  be  done,  if  there  be  abilitie;  according 
to  the  commendable  custome  of  the  place  &  countrie  wherein  men 
do  dwell;  so  as  in  the  vse  thereof,  these  cautions  bee  obserued. 
First,  that  in  mirth  and  merry-making,  there  be  care  had  that  ' 
nothing  be  done  which  is  dishonest,  prophane,  or  of  ill  report. 
Phihp.  4.  8.  Whatsoeuer  things  are  honest  —  pure  —  of  good  re-  -^" 
port,  thinke  on  these  things.  Secondly,  that  ioy  in  them  be  mixed  ^. 
and  moderated  with  feare  of  God,  without  which  Laughter  and 
reioycing  is  meere  madnesse,  Eccles.  2.  2.  Thirdly,  That  it  be  per- 
formed in  a  moderate  and  sober  vse  of  the  creatures,  without  riot 
&  excesse.  Thus  we  reade  at  the  great  feast  of  Ahashuerosh,  it 
was  appointed  by  the  King  himself,  that  they  should  drink  orderly, 
&  none  might  compel  another  to  drinke  more  then  he  thought  con- 
uenient.   Ester  I.  8."  ^ 

WilHam  Gouge,  a  later  Puritan,  goes  still  further,  declar- 
ing that  such  a  feast  partakes  of  the  nature  of  a  civil  ^ 
ceremony  and  is  '^very  requisite." 

"Though  vpon  the  forenamed  consecrating  of  mariage  it  bee  in 
regard  to  the  substance  thereof  fully  consummate,  yet  for  the  greater 
solemnity  of  so  honourable  a  thing,  it  is  very  requisite  that  further 
there  be  added  a  ciuill  celebration  of  it:  vnder  which  I  comprise  all 

^  Perkins,  Christian  Oeconomie,  p.  96. 


26  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

those  lawfull  customes  that  are  vsed  for  the  setting  forth  of  the  out- 
ward solemnitie  thereof,  as  meeting  of  friends,  accompanying  the 
{/  Bridgroome  and  Bride  both  to  and  from  the  Church,  putting  on 
■  best  apparell,  feasting,  with  other  tokens  of  reioycing:  for  which 
we  haue  expresse  warrant  out  of  Gods  word."  ^ 

/Among  the  Independents,  who  opposed  all  ecclesiastical 
performance  of  marriage,  the  rejoicing  and  feasting  of  friends 
was  regarded  almost  as  an  essential  part  of  the  wedding, 

\in  order  to  make  it  public  and  to  take  the  place  of  the  church 
ceremony.  Under  the  caption  "How  must  they  be  duelie 
ioined  in  mariage,"  Robert  Brown,  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  sect,  lays  down  these  principles:    • 

"Their  bethrothing  &  espousing  must  be  further  made  known 
vnto  witnesses.  Their  friendes  must  be  glad  and  reioyce  together, 
in  some  ioyefull  and  seemehe  manner."  * 

The  elaborateness  of  these  festal  celebrations  depended, 
of  course,  upon  the  position  and  wealth  of  the  bridal  couple. 
In  full  form,  they  lasted  two  or  three  days,  and  included 
banqueting,  dancing,  song,  games  (particularly  of  a  kissing 
nature),  outdoor  sports,  sometimes  masques  or  interludes, 
and  finally  a  levee  held  by  the  bride  and  groom  to  their 
nearest  friends  in  the  bed  chamber,  the  receiving  couple 
being  enthroned  in  the  bed.^  It  may  readily  be  imagined 
that  at  a  time  of  such  general  abandon,  abuses  and  excesses 
might  easily  take  place.  This  was  indeed  the  case,  and 
the  evil  practices  are  often  commented  on  by  the  writers  on 
marriage.  Bullinger's  description,  in  his  Cristen  state,  of 
such  an  afternoon  and  evening  is  too  good  to  miss. 

^  Gouge,  Domestical  Duties,  p.  120.      \ 
*  Brown,  Life  and  manners  of  true  Christians,  cap.  172. 
3  In  The  Changeling,  the  inmates  of  a  mad-house  are  hired  to  amuse 
a  wedding  company  on  the  third  day  of  the  feast.    In  The  Wonder  of 
Women,  a  pageant  takes  place  in  the  bridal  chamber. 


INTKODUCTION  27 

"After  the  bancket  and  feast  /  there  begynneth  a  vayne  /  madd/ 
and  vnmanerly  fashio.  For  the  bryde  must  be  brought  in  to  an 
open  dauncyng  place.  Then  there  is  such  a  renninge  /  leapinge/ 
and  flynging  amonge  them  /  then  there  is  such  a  lyftinge  vp  and 
discoueringe  of  damesels  clothes  and  of  other  wemens  apparell/ 
that  a  man  might  thinke  /  all  these  dauncers  had  cast  all  shame 
behinde  the  /  and  were  become  starke  madde  and  out  of  theyr 
wyttes  /  and  that  they  were  sworne  to  the  deuels  daunce.  Then 
must  the  poore  bryd  kepe  foote  with  all  dauncers  /  &  refuse  none/ 
how  scabbed  /  foule  /  dronke  /  rude  and  shamels  so  euer  he  be. 
Then  must  she  oft  tymes  heare  and  se  much  wickednesse  /  &  many 
an  vncomely  word.  And  that  noyse  and  robling  endureth  euen 
tyll  supper. 

"As  for  supper  /  loke  how  much  shamels  &  droken  the  euenyng 
is  more  then  the  murnyng  /  so  much  the  more  vyce  /  excesse/ 
and  mysnourtoure  is  vsed  at  the  supper.  After  supper  must  they 
begynne  to  pype  and  daunce  agayne  of  the  new.  And  though  the 
yonge  parsones  /  beynge  weery  of  the  bablyng  noyse  and  incon- 
uenience  /  come  ones  towarde  theyr  rest  /  yet  can  they  haue  no 
quietnesse.  For  a  man  shall  fynd  unmanerly  &  restlesse  people/ 
that  will  first  go  to  theyr  chabre  dore  /  and  there  syng  vycious 
and  naughtie  balates  that  the  deuell  maye  haue  his  trytiphe  now 
to  the  vttermost."  ^ 

With  the  coming  of  Puritan  and  Independent  ideas  after 
the  Reformation,  both  ceremony  and  custom  underwent 
certain  changes.  Those  described  above,  however,  may  be 
taken  as  representative  of  the  so-called  Church  of  England 
after  it  broke  away  from  the  Pope.  For  the  severing  of 
the  Anglican  Church  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  so  far  as 
marriage  and  divorce  were  concerned,  had  no  effect  upon 
general  conditions  whatsoever. 

1  BuUinger,  f .  L  6.  A  similar  description  of  wedding  revelry  occurs 
in  the  old  morality  play  The  Disobedient  Child  (Dodsley,  Old  Plays,  ed. 
HazHtt,  II,  300).  Another,  but  with  fewer  details,  is  given  by  Chaucer, 
Merchant's  Tale,  11.  465  fif. 


CHAPTER  II 
CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE 

I.  Historical  Situation 

The  first  years  of  the  Reformation  in  England  were  pic- 
turesquely and  aptly  described  by  Thomas  Fuller  in  a 
sermon  in  1643.  "King  Henry  the  eight,"  he  says,  ''brake 
the  Popes  necke,  but  bruised  not  the  least  finger  of  Popery; 
rejecting  his  Supremacy,  but  retaining  his  superstition  in 
the  six  Articles.  The  Reformation  under  Edward  the  sixth, 
was  like  the  Reformer,  little  better  then  a  child.  ...  As 
Nurses  to  woe  their  Children  to  part  from  knives  do  suffer 
them  to  play  with  Rattles;  so  the  State  then  permitted 
the  People  (infants  in  Piety)  to  plesise  themselves  with  some 
frivilous  points  of  Popery,  on  condition  they  would  forsake 
the  dangerous  opinions  thereof.  As  for  Queene  Elizabeth, 
her  Character  is  given  in  that  plaine,  but  true  expression, 
that  shee  swept  the  Church  of  England  and  left  all  the 
dust  behind  the  door."  ^  The  Puritan  doctrines  referred 
to  here,  which  began  to  make  themselves  felt  in  Elizabeth^s 
reign,  were  advanced  in  their  early  conception  in  both  Eng- 
land and  Germany  long  before  this  name  was  attached  to 
the  sect  in  1564.  Indeed,  the  beginning  of  this  agitation 
may  be  traced  back  without  break  to  WicUf;  but  although 
the  present  movement  was  the  result  of  principles  similar 
to  those  of  the  Lollards,  as  a  historical  development  it  is 
so  clearly  the  immediate  outcome  of  the  Reformation  that 
the  earlier  influences  may  be  quite  disregarded  here. 

1  Fuller,  A  Sermon  of  Reformation,  p.  7.  The  passage  given  is  quoted 
by  Fuller  from  some  work  which  he  does  not  name.  He  repudiates  the 
characterization  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  but  history  rather  supports  it. 

28 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  29 

As  early  as  1550,  the  effect  of  the  German  Reformation  ^ 
and  the  still  more  sweeping  reform  ideas,  many  of  which  were 
not  as  yet  in  actual  operation  anywhere,  began  to  have 
some  influence  in  England.  Many  of  the  future  leaders  of 
English  thought,  such  as  Hooper,  Coverdale,  Rogers,  and 
Ridley,  "the  first  race  of  Puritans,"  were  at  this  time  return- 
ing from  their  exile  on  the  continent,  and  by  sermons  and 
teaching  began  to  spread  the  doctrine  of  the  purification  of 
the  English  Church  from  Popish  practices  and  Popish  form 
of  government.  Although  in  the  succeeding  years  under  the 
oppression  of  Ehzabeth,  this  purification  was  still  aimed  at 
certain  ceremonial  details,  —  the  minister's  robe,  the  ring 
of  marriage,  etc.  —  and  some  historians  have  represented 
the  Puritan  movement  as  originating  from  the  desire  to 
get  rid  of  these,  the  fact  is  that  prelatical  episcopacy  in  its 
fundamental  conception  was  attacked,  by  some  at  least, 
from  the  very  first.  Hooper,  in  his  Declaration  of  the  Ten 
Commandments,  published  in  1550,  spends  three  chapters 
in  expounding  the  nature  of  ecclesiastical  law  and  the 
necessity  of  avoiding  the  decrees  and  interpretations  of 
Popish  bishops.^  And  Bucer,  in  his  Draft  of  a  more  primi- 
tive Church  system,^  in  1557,  goes  so  far  as  to  advocate 
provincial  synods  as  well  as  a  council  of  bishops  and 
presbyters. 

The  Puritan  form  of  church  government  in  its  complete 
conception  was  first  drawn  up  in  England  by  a  committee 
of  sixty  divines,  of  which  Cartwright  and  Travers  were 

^  Hooper,  Early  Writings,  p.  270  ff. 

2  Contained  in  his  De  Regno  Christi.  Such  a  form  of  church  gov- 
ernment was  instituted  by  Calvin  in  Geneva  in  1541,  having  been 
submitted  to  the  civil  authorities  in  1536.  Church  government  by 
synods  of  clergy  and  laity  had  been  established  by  Zwingli  at  Zurich 
as  early  as  1528.  Bucer's  ideas  were,  of  course,  taken  from  continental 
practice,  which  influenced  Hooper  and  the  other  English  Reformers 
also. 


30  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

members,  in  1576.  Here  we  find  provisions  for  three  types 
of  governing  bodies,  —  classes,  comitial  assemblies,  and 
provincial  synods  —  following  the  form  of  Calvin's  church 
government  at  Geneva.  These,  under  different  names, 
continued  to  be  advocated  as  the  disciplinary  powers  of  the 
Reformed  church.  These  principles  of  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment had  been  previously  set  forth  in  1574  in  a  Latin 
book  by  Travers,  Ecclesiasticae  Disdplinae,  et  Anglicanae 
Ecclesiae  .  .  .  explication  which  was  translated  by  Cart- 
wright  in  the  same  year  under  the  title  of  A  full  and 
plaine  declaration  of  Ecclesiasticall  discipline,  etc.  A  second 
Latin  book  by  Travers,  in  1584,  since  known  as  the  Book 
of  Discipline,  was  also  translated  in  that  year  by  Cart- 
wright,  but  its  publication  was  suppressed.^  Robert  Brown, 
later  the  founder  of  the  Brownist  sect,  issued  a  book  in  1582, 
The  life  and  manners  of  true  Christians,  which  for  the  first 
time  set  forth  in  English  the  Puritan  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
tural instruction  for  life  and  church  government.  But 
with  the  establishment  of  the  Court  of  High  Commissions 
in  1571  and  the  increasing  power  of  Archbishop  Whitgift, 
the  advance  of  the  Puritan  cause  was  brought  almost  to  an 

^  This  is  the  book  which  was  found  among  Cartwright's  papers  after 
his  death  and  published  in  1664  under  the  title  of  A  Directory  of  Church- 
government.  Neal  (History  of  Puritans,  I,  358)  confounds  these  two 
translations  from  Travers.  Heylyn  (History  of  Presbyterians,  p.  291) 
speaks  of  a  Form  by  Cartwright  as  being  popular  in  1582.  This  was 
the  translation  of  the  first  book.  The  confusion  of  the  two  works, 
which  existed  from  Neal's  time  until  1872,  is  set  right  by  the  editor  of 
the  reprint  of  the  1664  edition  of  Cartwright's  Directory.  Both  books, 
however,  contain  the  same  principles.  The  Elizabethan  names  for  the 
Directory  were  The  Book  of  Discipline,  The  Form  of  Discipline,  etc. 
The  editor  of  the  reprint  says  that  this  was  "no  doubt  the  same  book 
as  that  referred  to  in  the  proceedings  of  ParHament  in  1584,  under  the 
title  of  A  Book  of  the  Form  of  Common  Prayer,  Administration  of  the 
Sax^aments,  etc."  I  think  he  is  mistaken  here,  as  a  book  of  this  name 
and  date  is  extant  which  bears  no  resemblance  to  Cartwright's. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  31 

end,  although  its  adherents  held  their  ground  and  spread 
their  gospel  by  personal  teaching  and  suffering.  It  was 
at  this  time  that  the  Puritans  were  martyrs  as  non-conform- 
ists to  ritualistic  details  rather  than  as  advocates  of  a  reform 
of  church  government,  as  it  was  easier  to  convict  a  man  of 
ceremonial  omissions  than  of  doctrinal  opinions.  For  this 
reason,  it  is  natural  that  most  of  the  public  expression  of 
the  time  in  sermons,  petitions,  tracts,  etc.,  is  concerned 
with  superficialities  rather  than  fundamentals,  the  famous 
Marprelate  tracts  being  a  case  in  point;  but  the  treatises 
mentioned  above  show  clearly  that  the  real  trouble  was 
more  than  surface  deep. 

In  the  reign  of  James  I,  there  was  no  change  in  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  except  for  the  slackening  of  persecution.  In 
the  Humble  Petition  to  King  James  and  at  the  Hampton 
Court  Conference,  only  minor  points  were  discussed,  and 
the  only  things  obtained  by  the  Puritans  were  the  King's 
scorn  and  enmity.  The  limitation  of  the  power  of  the  eccle- 
siastical courts,  which  Neal  says  were  an  "insufferable 
grievance"  on  account  of  the  ''bottomless  deeps  of  canon 
law,*'  and  the  widening  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  mag- 
istrate on  much  the  same  lines  as  were  afterwards  established 
in  Charles'  time,  were  advocated  by  William  Bradshaw  in 
his  English  Puritanisme,  published  in  1605.  The  same  views 
were  for  the  first  time  expressed  in  Parliament  in  1607,  in 
a  speech  which  is  important  both  in  showing  the  coming 
attitude  of  the  period  and  in  throwing  light  upon  previous 
history.     The  following  is  extracted  from  it: 

"And  whereas  by  the  laws  of  God  and  the  land,  ecclesiastical 
persons  should  use  only  the  spiritual  sword,  by  exhortation,  admoni- 
tion, and  excommunication,  which  are  the  keys  of  the  church,  to 
exclude  impenitent  sinners,  and  leave  the  temporal  sword  to  the 
civil  magistrate,  which  was  always  so  used  in  England,  till  the  second 
year  of  the  reign  of  king  Henry  IV.  at  which  time  the  Popish  prelates 


32  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  EELATIONS 

got  the  temporal  sword  into  their  hands;  which  statute  was  since  by 
several  acts  of  Parliament  made  void;  yet  by  virtue  of  that  tem- 
poral authority  once  for  a  short  space  by  them  used,  some  eccle- 
siastical persons  do  use  both  swords,  and  with  those  two  swords  the 
oath  ex  officio,  which  began  first  in  England  by  the  statute  of  the 
second  of  king  Henry  IV.  being  contrary  to  the  laws  of  England, 
and,  as  I  verily  think,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God."  ^ 

But  nothing  came  either  of  Bradshaw's  book  or  of  this 
speech.  Another  attempt  was  made  in  the  same  direction 
by  a  petition  in  1610,  but  the  King  was  still  obdurate. 

The  Puritan  movement  was  once  more  changed  from 
an  aggressive  to  a  defensive  cause  under  the  high  hand  of 
Archbishop  Laud  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  So  bitter  and  so 
sweeping  was  this  prelate  in  his  attack  against  the  followers 
of  the  antipapal  movement  that  the  various  sects  of  non- 
conformists which  had  split  off  from  time  to  time  from  the 
established  church  almost  lost  their  individuality  in  the 
defense  of  their  common  doctrines,  especially  as  there  was 
no  occasion  to  quarrel  over  the  details  of  Protestantism 
until  Popery,  now  in  the  ascendent,  was  cast  from  the  realm. 
In  this  period  we  find  but  few  publications  on  the  Puritan 
side,  as  Laud  suppressed  them  as  thoroughly  as  he  could. 
A  few,  however,  appeared  anonymously,  but  their  supposed 
authors  were  severely  dealt  with,  Prynne,  Burton,  and 
Bastwick  being  imprisoned,  tortured,  pilloried,  and  fined. 
Under  Elizabeth  and  Whitgift,  the  High  Commission  Court 
had  been  oppressive  enough;  but  Laud,  by  obtaining  from 
Charles  a  decree  removing  ecclesiastical  courts  from  state 
control,  became  himself  the  absolute  master  of  every  church 
and  every  minister  in  the  country.  This,  of  course,  could 
not  have  been  the  case  had  he  not  had  the  support  of  all 
the  bishops,  —  with  the  exception  of  a  few  who  had  become 
non-conformists  —  for  they,  realizing  that  their  positions 

»  Neal,  History  of  the  Puritans,  II,  68  ff . 


CONTROVEKSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  33 

were  to  be  maintained  only  by  the  continuance  of  the  exist- 
ing form  of  church  government,  upheld  the  Archbishop 
and  opposed  the  growing  attitude  of  independence  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  In  1640,  Laud's  power  reached  its 
zenith,  as  expressed  in  the  canons  of  that  year.  Canon  6, 
"that  all  archbishops,  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  take 
oath  upholding  the  present  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the 
church,"  was  aimed  directly  at  all  those  opposed  to  ortho- 
doxy, with  the  intention  of  driving  every  non-conformist 
from  his  church  or  subjecting  him  to  such  punishment  as 
Laud's  courts  saw  fit. 

But  such  autocracy  could  not  be  maintained  indefinitely. 
Already  ministers  and  congregations  were  fleeing  the  country 
to  Holland,  Geneva,  and  America  in  order  to  escape  perse- 
cution and  to  worship  as  they  pleased.  In  1640,  the  House 
of  Commons  asserted  itself,  repudiated  the  canons  just 
passed,  and  resolved  "that  the  clergy  of  England  .  .  .  have 
no  power  to  make  any  constitutions,  canons,  or  acts,  what- 
soever, in  matters  of  doctrine,  discipline  or  otherwise,  to 
bind  the  laity  of  the  land,  without  consent  of  Parliament."  ^ 
Laud  was  sentenced  to  the  Tower  in  1641,  and  ParHament 
set  about  to  strip  the  church  and  the  bishops  of  the  power 
obtained  under  his  administration.  By  this  time,  the 
Puritans  and  their  fellow  non-conformists  represented  not 
only  the  general  opinion  but  also  the  real  power  of  the  entire 
kingdom;  hereafter  their  labors  were  to  be  directed  merely 
towards  forcing  their  desired  reforms  from  the  House  of 
Lords  and  the  King. 

The  bishops  in  the  House  of  Lords  stubbornly  blocked 
every  effort  of  the  Commons  for  reform;  but  the  Commons, 
supported  by  the  populace  of  London  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  laity  of  the  upper  house,  were  becoming  too  powerful 
to  be  resisted.     In  1641,  the  Star  Chamber  and  the  Court 

1  Neal,  II,  319. 


34  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

of  High  Commissions  were  abolished;  and  in  1642,  a  bill 
was  railroaded  through  both  houses  taking  all  temporal 
jurisdiction  from  the  bishops.  Thus  the  first  obstacle  to 
complete  church  reform  was  overcome.  The  King,  who  by 
this  time  was  pretty  well  intimidated  by  Parliament,  was 
approached  in  the  same  year  with  a  summary  in  nineteen 
propositions  of  the  reforms  desired,  the  most  important  of 
which  for  us  was  "that  your  Majesty  will  be  pleased  to 
consent,  that  such  a  Reformation  be  made  of  the  Church- 
Government  and  Liturgy  as  both  Houses  of  Parliament  shall 
Advise;  wherein  they  intend  to  have  Consultations  with 
Divines."  ^  These  propositions  were  not  granted  in  any 
satisfactory  way,  and  the  deadlock  between  the  King  and 
the  country,  which  embraced  other  matters  than  eccle- 
siastical, finally  resulted  in  civil  war. 

It  is  not  possible  here  to  go  sufficiently  into  the  history 
of  this  period  to  show  the  various  efforts  and  the  failures 
thereof  on  the  part  of  Parliament  to  obtain  a  real  reform 
of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  It  will  be  enough  for  our  purpose 
to  set  forth  the  propositions  for  church  government  sub- 
mitted to  the  King  at  Uxbridge  in  1645.  These,  though 
not  accepted  by  him,  are  important  in  that  they  express 
the  general  principles  of  all  the  non-conforming  parties,  of 
which  the  English  Puritans  and  the  Scotch  Presbyterians 
were  the  leaders,  and  also  because  they  became  in  the  next 
year  the  basis  of  the  church  doctrine  and  government  under 
the  Commonwealth.  The  new  doctrine  was  set  forth  in  a 
Directory  for  Public  Worship,  which  was  to  supersede  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  Edward  VI.  It  was  drawn  up 
by  the  official  assembly  appointed  in  1643.^  It  contained, 
beside   an  introduction  explaining  its   origin,   the   proper 

^  Rushworth,  Historical  Collections,  Pt.  3,  I,  723. 
*  The  Directory  was  not  made  law  until  January  3,  1645.    It  may 
be  found  in  Scobell,  Acts  and  Ordinances  of  Parliament,  I,  76  ff. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  35 

forms  and  usages  connected  with  the  functions  of  the  church 
under  the  following  headings:  (1)  Assembling  the  Congre- 
gation, (2)  Public  Reading  of  "fche  Holy  Scriptures,  (3) 
Public  Prayer  before  the  Sermon,  (4)  Preaching  the  Word, 
(5)  Prayer  after  the  Sermon,  (6)  The  Sacrament  of  Baptism, 
(7)  The  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  (8)  The  Sanctifi- 
cation  of  the  Lord's  Day,  (9)  The  Solemnization  of  Matri- 
mony, (10)  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  (11)  Burial  of  the  Dead, 
(12)  Public  Solemn  Fasting,  (13)  Observance  of  Days  of 
PubUc  Thanksgiving,  (14)  Singing  of  Psalms,  and  (15)  an 
Appendix  on  the  Days  and  Places  of  PubUc  Worship.  The 
government  of  the  church  was  to  be  in  the  hands  of  congre- 
gational, classical,  and  synodical  assemblies,  in  practically 
the  same  manner  as  that  of  Calvin's  church  at  Geneva, 
which  had  been  advocated  by  Cartwright  in  England  in 
the  previous  century.^ 

This  form  of  church  government  became  established 
nationally,  by  way  of  trial,  under  the  Commonwealth  in 
1646.  The  order  of  bishop  was  abolished,  London  was 
divided  into  twelve  classical  elderships,  each  containing 
twelve  parishes,  and  persons  were  appointed  by  Parliament 
to  settle  the  counties  of  England  and  Wales  into  provinces, 
as  had  already  been  done  in  Scotland  by  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  The  eldership  of  each  parish  was  obliged  to 
meet  every  week,  the  classical  assemblies  once  a  month, 
provincial  assemblies  twice  a  year,  and  national  assemblies 
as  often  as  summoned  by  Parhament.  The  exact  limita- 
tions of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  church  under  this  regime 

^  See  his  Directory  and  Discipline.  Some  similar  form  of  church 
government  was  established  as  early  as  1576  by  Cartwright  in  the 
islands  of  Guernsey  and  Jersey,  which  had  obtained  royal  permission 
to  manage  their  own  ecclesiastical  affairs.  But  I  have  been  unable  to 
find  any  further  information  on  the  subject,  except  that  this  arrange- 
ment came  to  an  end  in  the  latter  part  of  James  I's  reign. 


36  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  BELATIONS 

cannot  be  determined.  The  sole  disciplinary  function 
seems  to  have  been  to  deprive  individuals  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion in  cases  of  sufficient  offense.  The  ordinances  "that 
cognizance  and  examination  of  any  capital  Offence,  shall 
be  by  the  Magistrate  thereunto  appointed/'  and  that  "the 
Presbytery  .  .  .  shall  not  have  cognizance  of  anything 
wherein  any  matter  of  Payment,  Contract,  or  Demand  is 
concerned,  or  of  any  matter  of  Conveyance,  Title,  Inter- 
est, or  Property,"^  which  had  been  established  in  1645, 
give  us  the  general  status  of  the  case  but  leave  us  in  the 
dark  as  to  the  particular  interests  of  our  investigation, 
namely  marriage  and  divorce.  The  aboHshing  of  the  tem- 
poral power  of  the  bishops  in  1642,  and  the  utter  overthrow 
of  their  office  in  1646,  together  with  the  final  establish- 
ment of  the  new  form  of  government  in  1648,  when  the 
power  of  the  assembfies  was  limited  to  settling  points  of  faith 
and  to  excommunication  for  disorders,^  would  seem  to  make 
it  clear  that  questions  of  marriage  and  divorce  were,  at 
least  officially,  taken  entirely  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
church.  On  the  other  hand,  no  law  was  passed  touching 
upon  either  subject,  and  no  new  method  of  judicature  has 
been  discovered  as  operating  at  the  time. 

This  situation  was  brought  to  an  end  by  Cromwell's 
marriage  act  in  1653,  in  which  it  was  provided  that  marriage 
should  be  performed  by  the  local  justices  of  the  peace,  and 
that  all  controversies  or  exceptions  concerning  contracts 
and  marriages  should  also  be  referred  to  them  or  to  such 
other  persons  as  Parliament  might  appoint. 

1  Rushworth,  Pt.  4,  I,  212. 

2  Scobell,  I,  165  ff.  The  whole  form  of  church  government,  as  then 
established,  may  be  found  here. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  37 


II.  The  Puritan  Platform  in  regard  to  Marriage 

The  above  brief  outline  of  the  general  Puritan  move- 
ment will  be  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  place  the  various 
reforms  in  regard  to  marriage  in  their  proper  historical 
setting.  In  looking  more  closely  into  the  legislation  and 
practice  centering  about  this  subject,  it  is  necessary  to 
consider  not  only  the  history  of  the  Puritans,  but  also  that 
of  the  other  non-conformist  bodies,  in  England,  Scotland, 
the  Continent,  and  America.  Historians  seem  to  have 
neglected  this  very  important  period  in  the  development 
of  the  present-day  conception  of  marriage,  and  have  con- 
tented themselves  with  saying  that  civil  marriage  origi- 
nated in  Holland  and  spread  from  there  to  England  and 
America. 

The  mistake  here  arises  from  a  failure  to  distinguish 
between  a  legal  marriage,  which  might  be  merely  spousals 
de  praesenti,  and  the  "solemnization  of  matrimony"  by 
the  church,  which  was  no  more  than  an  ecclesiastical  bless- 
ing upon  an  already  established  union.  The  church,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  on,  had  attempted  to 
put  the  emphasis  upon  the  solemnization,  although  it  always 
recognized  a  privately  contracted  marriage  as  valid. 
Luther's  teachings,  on  the  other  hand,  while  retaining  the 
church  service  as  a  beneficial  custom,^  threw  the  emphasis 
upon  the  previous  contract,  where  in  the  light  of  actual 
law  it  belonged.  It  was .  doubtless  the  result  of  Luther's 
teachings,  passed  on  by  Calvin,  that  two  of  the  Netherland 
provinces,  Holland  and  West  Friesland,  established  civil 
marriage  in  1580  upon  gaining  independence  from  Spain.^ 

^  Luther  drafted  a  model  ceremony  for  use  where  desired,  which  was 
followed  with  variations  in  the  chief  church  ordinances. 

2  "There  the  law  was  'that  those  of  any  religion,  after  lawful  and 
open  publication,  coming  before  the  magistrates  in  the  town-house, 


38  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

But  this  ceremony  did  not  replace  that  of  the  church,  as 
has  been  usually  thought;  it  was  merely  a  legal  recogni- 
tion and  sanction  of  the  marriage  contract,  which  up  to 
this  time  had  been  performed  in  private,  with  or  without 
witnesses,  as  spousals  de  praesenti.  That  the  ecclesiastical 
solemnization  continued  to  be  practised  in  Holland,  as  an 
additional  ceremony,  is  shown  by  the  presence  of  the  usual 
church  service  in  the  old  Dutch  hturgies  ^  and  is  testified 
to  by  the  Brownists'  Confessions  of  Faith. ^  Furthermore, 
among  the  forms  and  ceremonies  estabhshed  by  the  National 
Synod  of  Dort  in  1618-19  for  all  the  reformed  churches 
of  the  Netherlands,  The  Celebration  of  Marriage  before  the 
Church  is  printed  for  general  use.^  It  is  thus  clear  that  in 
Holland  the  so-called  civil  marriage  was  no  great  innovation 
at  all,  but  was  merely  the  old  private  marriage,  by  means 
of  spousals  de  praesenti,  conducted  according  to  legal  form. 

That  this  explanation  of  the  case,  which  is  important 
both  for  itself  and  for  its  later  bearing  upon  England  and 
America,  is  the  correct  one,  is  further  shown  by  the  church 
service  itself,  in  which  the  man  and  the  woman  are  regarded 
and  referred  to  as  already  married  but  "desire  here  openly 
to  have  your  marriage-bond  confirmed  in  the  name  of  God 

or  stadt-house,  were  to  be  by  them  orderly  married,  one  to  another. ' " 
Bacon,  Genesis  of  New  England  Churches,  p.  340.  See  also  Bradford, 
History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  I,  217. 

*  See  Bibles,  liturgies,  etc.,  published  at  Delft,  1582,  and  Leyden, 
1589,  under  title,  Bihlia,  dat  is  De  gantsche  Heylighe  Schrift,  etc.,  and 
also  the  comments  on  the  English  Reformed  church  in  Holland, 
pp.  43-44  below. 

2  This  book  is  contained  in  An  Apologie  or  Defense  of  .  .  .  Brovvn' 
ists,  1604.  BaiUie,  in  his  Dissvasive  from  the  Errours  of  the  tim£,  p.  42, 
quotes  this  passage  from  it:  "The  Dutch  Church  at  Amsterdam  cele- 
brates mariage  in  the  Church,  as  if  it  were  a  part  of  the  Ecclesiastick 
Administration,  while  it  is  in  the  nature  of  it  meerly  civill." 

'  See  A  Catechisme  of  the  Christian  Religion,  etc.,  trans,  from  the 
Dutch,  p.  81. 


CONTKOVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  39 

before  his  church."  ^  An  interesting  comment,  which  again 
supports  my  view,  is  made  upon  this  ceremony  in  the  ac- 
count of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  published  by  order  of  the 
Synod  of  Walloon  Churches,  held  in  1667:  '^Comme  il  se 
trouve  que  jusques  a  present  on  use  par  tout  de  deverses  manieres 
touchant  les  Mariages,  &  toutefois  est  convenahle  d^entretenir 
Uniformite  en  cest  endroit,  les  Eglises  continueront  V  Usage 
qu^elles  on  eu  jusques  a  maintenant,  conforme  a  la  Parole  de 
Dieu  &  aux  predecentes  Ordonnances  Ecclesiastiques,  jusques 
a  ce  que  par  le  Magistrat  Superieur  (lequel  on  requerra  promp- 
tement  pour  cest  effect)  eu  soit  estahlie,  avec  Vadvis  des  Min- 
istres,  une  Ordonnance  generate,  a  laquelle  ce  Reglement 
Ecclesiastique  se  rapporte  quand  a  ce  pointJ^  ^  In  such  form, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  marriage  continued  to  be  celebrated 
in  Holland  throughout  our  period. 

In  England,  even  in  the  established  church,  conditions 
were  similar  to  those  in  Holland,  except  that  the  presence 
of  civil  authority  was  not  required,  and  in  public  opinion, 
though  not  in  either  ecclesiastical  or  civil  law,  greater 
emphasis  was  laid  upon  the  church  ceremony.  William 
Harrington,  whose  views  were  orthodox  even  to  the  point  of 
including  marriage  among  the  sacraments,  makes  these 
points  clear.    Writing  in  1528,  he  says: 

"It  is  to  be  knowen  that  man  and  woman  dothe  entre  this  holy 
ordre  and  sacramente  of  matrymony  by  expresse  and  free  consente 

*  Catechisme  of  the  Christian  Religion,  p.  83.  In  putting  the  vows 
to  the  bridal  couple,  the  minister  is  directed  to  say  "to  the  married 
persons" : 

"N.  doe  you  acknowledge  here  before  God,  and  his  Holy  Church, 
that  you  have  taken,  and  doe  take  to  your  lawfuU  wife  N.  here  pres- 
ent," etc. 

Note  the  tenses.  Furthermore,  there  is  no  pronouncing  of  the  couple 
to  be  "man  and  wife,"  as  this  would  have  occurred,  if  at  all,  at  the  civil 
ceremony. 

2  La  Confession  de  Foy  des  Eglises  Reform^es  du  Pais-Bas,  etc.,  p.  78. 


40  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  BELATIONS 

of  bothe  partyes  /  that  is  to  say:  when  bothe  the  man  and  the 
woman  dothe  eonsente  bothe  in  one  tyme  to  be  husbonde  and  wyfe/ 
and  that  eonsente  doo  shewe  eyther  to  other  by  expresse  wordes  of 
the  tyme  presente,  as  by  these  wordes  or  other  lyke  /  I  take  the  to 
my  wyfe  /  or  I  frome  this  tyme  forwarde  wyll  haue  the  to  my 
wyfe.  .  .  .  But  and  they  vse  wordes  of  the  tyme  to  come  .  .  . 
then  it  is  noo  matrymony.  .  .  . 

"  Moreouer  this  consent  which  doth  make  matrymony  ought  to 
be  expressed  &  shewed  in  open  and  in  honest  places  afore  &  in  the 
psence  of  honest  and  laufull  wytnesses  called  specyally  therfore,  ii 
at  ye  leest  /  for  &  it  be  otherwyse  yt  is  to  say  /  yf  ye  man  &  woman 
or  theyr  proctours  do  make  matrymony  secretly  by  them  selfe 
without  any  recorde  or  but  with  one  wytnesse  yt  is  called  matry- 
mony cladestinat  whiche  for  many  causes  is  forboden  by  the  lawe 
.  .  .  notwithstondyng  that  matrymony  is  valeable  and  holdeth 
afore  god.  .  .  . 

"And  when  matrymony  is  thus  laufully  made  /  yet  the  man 
maye  not  possesse  the  woman  as  his  wyfe  /  nor  the  woman  the 
man  as  her  husbonde  .  .  .  afore  suche  tyme  as  that  matrymony 
be  approued  and  solempnysed  by  oure  mother  holy  chyrche  /  and 
yf  they  do  in  dede  they  synne  deedly."  ^ 

Thus  in  England,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  marriage  by  means 
of  spousals  de  praesenti  was  recognized  by  both  church  and 
state,  but  the  church  had  managed  to  become  accredited 
as  the  proper  authority  for  the  solemnization  of  it.  Never- 
theless, as  this  authority  was  self-assumed  and  as  the 
sacramental  character  of  marriage  was  repudiated  in  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  of  1552,  it  had  only  the  validity  of 
tradition. 

That  the  civil  authority  should  take  charge  of  affairs 
matrimonial,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  advocated  in  the 
first  meeting  of  Puritan  divines,  in  1576.  As  yet  the  Re- 
formers were  too  much  occupied  with  planning  the  mere 

^  Harrington,  CDmendacions  of  matrymony,  f .  Aiii  fif.  For  a  fuller 
quotation  from  Harrington,  see  Appendix  C,  below. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE        41 

form  of  church  government  to  give  attention  to  the  divi- 
sion of  power  between  church  and  state,  although  they  went 
as  far  as  to  determine  that  the  classical  assemblies  should 
decide  "doubts  and  difficulties  touching  the  contract  of 
marriage."  Cartwright's  Directory  also  omitted  any  men- 
tion of  civil  jurisdiction.  His  directions  as  to  marriage 
itself  are  interesting  as  the  first  Puritan  expression  in  Eng- 
land on  the  subject. 

"Let  espousing  goe  before  marriage.  Let  the  words  of  espous- 
ing be  of  the  present  time,  and  without  condition,  and  before 
sufficient  witnesses  on  both  sides.  It  is  to  be  wished  that  the 
Minister  or  an  Elder  be  present  at  the  espousals,  who  having  called 
upon  God  may  admonish  both  parties  of  their  duties.  .  .  . 

"The  Espousals  being  done  in  due  order,  let  them  not  be  dis- 
solved, though  both  parties  should  consent.  Let  the  marriage  be 
solemnized  within  two  moneths  after.  Before  the  marriage  let  the 
promise  be  published  three  severall  Sabbath  dales;  but  first,  let 
the  parties  espoused,  with  their  parents  or  govenours  desire  the 
publishing  thereof  of  the  Minister  and  two  Elders  at  the  least, 
that  they  may  be  demanded  of  those  things  that  are  needfuU,  and 
let  them  require  to  see  the  instrument  of  the  covenant  of  Mar- 
riage, or  at  least  sufficient  testimony  of  the  Espousals."  ^ 

It  is  important  to  notice  here  the  emphasis  laid  upon 
spousals  and  the  insistence  that  they  be  de  praesenti  and 
before  witnesses.  In  this  we  see  the  influence  of  Luther's 
teachings  in  England  even  before  they  became  established 
by  law  in  Holland. 

From  the  appointment  of  Whitgift  as  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  in  1583  to  the  fall  of  Laud  in  1641,  the  Puritans 
were  persecuted  to  such  an  extent  and  the  publication  of 
so-called  seditious  pamphlets  was  so  rigorously  suppressed 
that  it  is  difficult  to  find  much  expression  of  opinion  on  the 
subjects  of  church  government  and  marriage.     Neverthe- 

^  Cartwright,  Directory,  f.  B3. 


4:2  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

less,  on  the  latter  topic  I  have  found  enough  writing  to  be 
able  to  present  a  definite  account  of  its  theory  and  practice. 
William  Perkins,  in  his  Christian  Oeconomie,  1590,  gives 
the  fullest  discourse,  of  which  the  following  are  the  most 
important  passages: 

"Mariage  is  that,  whereby  the  coniunction  formerly  begunne  in 
the  contract,  is  solemnely  manifested,  and  brought  to  perfection. 
Mariage  is  consummate  by  three  sorts  of  actions;  one  of  the  par- 
ents of  the  Bride  and  Bridegroome,  the  other  of  the  Minister  in 
pubhcke,  the  third  of  the  persons  coupled  together.  .  .  . 

"The  second  Action  ...  is  the  blessing  and  sanctification 
thereof,  which  is  a  solemne  worke,  whereby  the  Minister  pronounc- 
ing the  parties  contracted  to  be  man  and  wife  before  the  whole 
congregation,  commendeth  them  and  their  estate  vnto  God  by 
solemn  prayer.  .  .  . 

"Now  that  this  action  is  to  be  approued  and  vsed  in  the  Church, 
appear es  by  these  reasons.  I.  Mariage  as  it  is  a  publicke  action, 
so  it  is  after  a  sort  a  spirituall  and  diuine  ordinance,  whereby  it 
differeth  from  the  contract:  For  the  contract  being  meerely  ciuill, 
as  it  standeth  by  consent  of  man,  so  by  the  same  consent,  it  may  bee 
broken  and  dissolued,  but  with  mariage  it  is  otherwise.  II.  Mar- 
riage is  the  Seminarie  of  the  Church  and  Conunon-wealth.  III. 
It  was  the  practise  of  ye  Primitive  Church."  ^ 

As  in  the  case  of  Cartwright's  Directory,  it  should  be 
noted  that  the  church  ceremony  is  not  regarded  here  as 
the  actual  marriage  —  that  had  already  taken  place  in  the 
spousals  de  praesenti  —  yet  it  is  strongly  recommended 
that  the  church  should  bless  and  solemnize  the  union.  This 
attitude  is  more  definitely  expressed  in  a  statement  made 

1  Perkins,  op.  dt.,  pp.  83,  94,  94,  respectively.  The  Biblical  author- 
ity cited  by  Perkins  for  making  marriage  an  ecclesiastical  affair  is: 
(1)  God  said  to  Adam  and  Eve,  "Increase  and  multiply"  {Gen.  II,  22); 
and  (2)  St.  Paul  said,  "Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order  " 
(I  Cor.  XIV,  40). 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  43 

by  John  Paget  ^  in  a  collection  of  letters  entitled  An  Arrow 
against  the  Separation  of  the  Brownists,  published  at  Amster- 
dam in  1618.  ''For  marriages,"  says  this  writer,  "we  do 
not  hold  it  as  a  thing  of  necessity  that  they  should  be  cele- 
brated by  Ministers  in  the  church;  we  judge  them  lawful 
marriages  that  are  made  by  the  Magistrates,  without  Min- 
isters; but  yet  we  hold  it  lawful,  more  convenient  and 
comfortable,  that  they  be  accomplished  in  the  church  by 
Ministers,  both  for  showing  the  duties  of  the  persons  mar- 
ried, and  for  obtaining  a  special  blessing  by  the  prayers  of 
the  congregation."  ^  The  writers  who  attack  more  directly 
the  civil  marriage  of  the  Brownists  take  the  same  attitude. 
Thomas  Edwards  in  his  Antapologia:  or,  A  Full  Answer  to  the 
Apologeticall  Narration,^  asks,  ''Whether  also,  one  of  these 
Apologists,  was  not  so  farre  gone  in  the  principles  of  the  new 
Church-way,  as  that  he  would  not  be  married  by  Ministers, 
but  deferred  marriage  till  he  came  into  Holland,  where 
presently  after  his  comming  he  was  married,  (not  in  the  way 
of  the  Reformed  churches  there,)  but  by  the  Magistrates 
according  to  the  way  of  the  Brownists,  as  it  is  laid  down  in 
Robinsons  ApologieJ^  *  Another  Puritan  writer,  Ephriam 
Paget,  in  his  Heresiography,  a  book  on  the  various  non- 
conformist sects,  describes  the  Brownists  as  being  "as 
malevolent  to  the  Dutch  and  French  churches  as  to  us," 
and  among  the  reasons  given  for  this  antipathy  is  the  fact 
that  they  celebrate  marriage  in  the  church.  "Is  not  this 
a  foule  fault?"  asks  Paget  ironically,  "Is  it  not  better  to 

^  This  Paget  is  not  included  by  Brook  in  his  Lives  of  the  PurUanSf 
but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  represents  Puritan  beliefs. 

*  Hanbury,  Historical  Memorials,  I,  334. 

'  The  Apologeticall  Narration  was  written  by  several  Brownists  in 
defense  of  their  doctrines. 

*  Edwards,  op.  dt.,  p.  22.     For  account  of  Robinson's  Apologie, 
see  below,  p.  53,  n.  1. 


44  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

be  married  in  the  Congregation  with  prayers  and  Gods 
blessing  pronounced  upon  them  by  the  minister,  then  to 
be  contracted  privately,  and  entered  into  a  book  as  men  do 
horses  in  Smithfield?"  i 

Summing  up  these  opinions,  we  have  clear  and  abundant 
evidence  that  the  Puritans,  while  not  condemning  mar- 
riage by  magistrates  as  unlawful,  considered  it  ^'lawful, 
more  convenient  and  comfortable"  that  it  should  be  solem- 
nized by  the  church. 


III.  The  Position  and  Practice  of  the 
Independents 

From  the  passages  cited  above,  it  will  readily  be  seen 
that  the  Brownists  or  Independents  went  much  further  in 
their  emancipation  from  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in  marital 
affairs  than  did  the  other  reformed  churches.^  This  inno- 
vation was  originated  by  Brown  himself,  who  probably 
developed  it  from  the  teachings  of  Luther  —  perhaps 
through  Cartwright's  Directory  —  and  from  the  practice 
of  Holland.^  It  was  first  expressed  by  him  in  his  book, 
The  life  and  manners  of  true  Christians,  pubUshed  at  Middel- 
burg  in  1582,  the  principles  of  which  he  and  his  assistant 
Richard  Harding  preached  upon  their  return  to  England 

1  Paget,  op.  dt,  p.  50. 

2  Historians  and  legal  writers  have  failed  entirely  to  realize  this 
fact,  namely,  that  the  Brownists  differed  radically  from  the  other 
reformed  churches  in  their  ideas  of  marriage.  The  point  is,  however, 
of  extreme  importance:  from  a  historical  standpoint,  it  explains  the 
origin  of  the  civil  marriage  of  New  England,  and  from  a  literary  one,  it 
throws  considerable  light  upon  Milton's  conception  of  marriage.  These 
points  are  both  demonstrated  below. 

'  Brown  had  been  a  disciple  of  Cartwright  and  "built  his  schism 
upon  Cartwright's  principles"  (Heylyn,  p.  295).  It  is  evident  that 
Brown  goes  much  further  in  his  "schism"  than  did  Cartwright. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE        45 

in  1584.  In  speaking  of  marriage,  Brown  makes  no  men- 
tion of  the  church  at  all.  The  important  things  connected 
with  marriage  he  declares  to  be  espousals  and  cohabita- 
tion. The  chief  points  to  be  observed  are  set  forth  as 
follows: 

"Mariage  is  a  lawfuU  ioyning  and  fellowship  of  the  husbande  and 
wife,  as  of  two  in  one  fleshe,  by  partaking  the  vse  of  eche  others 
loue,  bodie,  and  giftes,  in  one  communion  of  dueties:  and  especiallie 
in  generation  and  bringing  vp  children.  .  .  . 

"The  couenant  of  Mariage  is  an  agreement  or  partaking  of  con- 
ditions, to  hold  the  communion  thereof,  so  long  as  death  or  lawfuU 
separation  and  divorcemet  doth  not  breake  it. 

"There  is  also  a  couenant  before  mariage  as  by  bethrothing, 
espousing  and  agreement  of  friends  and  kindred. 

"Bethrothing  is  a  couenant  betweene  the  parties  to  be  married, 
whereby  they  giue  their  troth  that  they  will  and  shall  marrie 
together,  except  some  laweful  vnmeetnes  and  disliking  eche  of  the 
other  do  hinder  it  in  the  meane  time. 

"Espousing  is  the  couenant  betweene  them,  whereby  they  are 
pronounced  before  witnesses,  to  giue  them  selues,  and  to  be  giuen 
eche  to  other  to  become  husband  and  wife."  ^ 

This  account,  however,  does  not  express  definitely  that 
marriage  is  a  civil  affair  only  and  that  the  church  has  nothing 
to  do  with  it,  although  such  were  clearly  Brown's  views. 
But  in  1587  we  find  these  doctrines  not  only  expressed  but 
publicly  proclaimed  before  the  Court  of  High  Commission  by 
John  Greenwood,  a  member  of  the  Brownist  sect.  This 
was  the  first  voice  raised  in  England  against  marriage  as 

^  Brown,  op.  dt.,  sees.  169  and  171.  This  important  book  is  occa- 
sionally mentioned  by  historians  but  seems  to  have  escaped  examina- 
tion, although  Hanbnry  quotes  a  few  definitions  from  it.  (Hist.  Mem.j 
I,  19  ff.)  In  the  passage  above,  Brown  uses  the  term  marriage  to  mean 
not  the  ceremony  but  the  state,  the  term  betrothing  to  mean  spousals 
de  futuro,  and  the  term  espousing  to  mean  spousals  de  praesenti. 


46  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

practised  by  the  established  church.^    The  following  ques- 
tions and  answers  took  place  at  Greenwood's  trial: 

"Q.  What  say  you  of  marriage?  Did  you  not  marry  one  Bo- 
man  and  his  wife  in  the  Fleet? 

"G.  No.    Neither  is  marriage  any  part  of  the  minister's  oflSce. 

"Q.  Who  used  prayer? 

"G.   I  think,  that  I  used  prayer,  at  that  time. 

*'Q.  Who  joined  their  hands  together? 

"G.  I  know  no  such  thing.  They  pubhcly  acknowledged  their 
consent  before  the  assembly. 

"Winch.  They  make  such  marriages  under  a  hedge.  It  hath 
been  an  order  long  received  to  marry  by  a  minister. 

"G.  There  were  many  faithful  witnesses  of  their  mutual  con- 
sent. And  if  it  were  not  lawful,  we  have  many  ancient  fathers, 
who,  by  your  judgement,  did  amiss."  ^ 


The  evidence  of  Brown  and  Greenwood,  somewhat  in- 
complete in  itself,  is  fully  substantiated  by  Robert  Barrow 
in  his  book  A  Brief  Discovery  of  the  False  Churches^  pub- 
lished in  1590,^  three  years  before  he  was  executed  along  with 

^  I  do  not  take  into  account  here  the  many  objections  which  had 
been  raised  by  the  Puritans  against  ceremonial  details  in  the  orthodox 
marriage  service.  For  notice  of  these,  see  Hooker,  Ecclesiastical  Polity 
(ed.  Rhys),  II,  391  fif.,  and  notes  there. 

2  Brook,  II,  35.  It  should  be  noted  here  that  even  the  Bishop  of 
Winchester  acknowledges  the  validity  of  privately  contracted  mar- 
riages, although  accomplished  in  the  way  he  describes  in  the  slang  of 
the  day.  (Cf.  Jaques'  speech  to  Touchstone,  "And  will  you,  being  a 
man  of  your  breeding,  be  married  under  a  bush,  like  a  beggar?  Get 
you  to  church,  and  have  a  good  priest,  that  can  tell  you  what  marriage 
is."    As  You  Like  It,  III,  3.) 

'  This  book  also  has  been  entirely  neglected  by  students  of  marital 
affairs,  although  quotations  from  it  occur  in  Hanbury  (I,  39  ff.).  I 
have  been  able  to  find  only  the  reprint  of  1707,  the  editor  of  which, 
says  Hanbury,  "destroyed  all  the  raciness  of  the  original." 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  47 

Greenwood  on  the  charge  of  writing  seditious  pamphlets. 
As  this  book  gives  the  fullest  expression  I  have  found  of 
the  Independents'  principles  in  regard  to  marriage,  I  am 
led  to  quote  from  it  at  some  length.  Referring  to  ''this  so 
famous  Church  of  England,"  Barrow  says: 

"Not  to  speak  of  their  Orders  or  Injunctions  which  are  Four 
times  in  the  Year  to  be  solemnly  read,  nor  to  repeat  their  Penance, 
with  the  bitter  Curses  and  Comminations,  their  Lentfast;  they  have 
yet  the  Holy  Ceremony  of  Marriage,  solemnly  kept  in  the  Church 
(for  the  most  part)  upon  the  Lord's-day:  And  an  especial  Composed 
Communion  for  the  same.  This  Action  is  to  be  performed  by  the 
Priest,  &c.  who  instructing  the  Parties  to  be  joined  in  Wedlock 
what  to  say,  and  when  to  pray,  &c.  teacheth  the  Man  to  wed  his 
Wife  with  a  Ring,  in  the  Name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  .  .  . 

"But  in  the  mean  time,  I  would  fain  know  of  the  most  Learned 
among  them  all,  either  Foreigners  or  Natives,  where  they  find  in 
the  Old  or  New  Testament,  That  Marriage  is  an  Ecclesiastical  Ac- 
tion, belonging  to  the  Worship  of  God  in  his  Church,  to  be  done  by 
the  Minister  as  part  of  his  Office  and  Function,  and  that  in  the 
Church,  with  such  a  Set  of  Collects,  Exhortations,  Psalms,  An- 
thems, and  Blessings  composed  for  that  Purpose.  ...  I  have 
always  found  it  the  Parents  Office  to  provide  Marriages  for  their 
Children,  whilst  they  remain  under  their  Charge  and  Government: 
And  that  the  Parties  themselves  affianced  and  betrothed  each 
other  in  the  Fear  of  God  and  the  presence  of  such  Witnesses  as  were 
thought  fit  to  be  present,  and  that  in  their  Parents  or  other  pri- 
vate Houses,  without  being  obliged  to  go  to  Church  for  an  Ordi- 
nance and  Action  of  the  Second  Table,  and  see  not  why  they  might 
not  as  well  bring  any  other  Civil  Business  as  this  into  the  Church, 
for  few  beheve  themselves  to  be  rightly  Married  except  it  be  done 
by  a  Priest,  after  the  prescribed  manner,  and  that  also  in  the  due 
Seasons.  .  .  .  though  all  these  Ceremonies  are  not  observed  in  all 
the  Reformed  Churches."  ^ 

^  Barrow,  op.  cit.,  p.  190  ff. 


48  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

/  The  religious  platform  of  the  Brownists  was  officially 
drawn  up  in  a  Confession  of  Faith  by  the  exiles  in  Holland 
in  1596  and  pubhshed  in  1598/  addressed  "To  the  reuerend 
and  learned  me,  Students  of  the  holy  Scripture,  in  the 
Christian  Vniversities  of  Leyden  in  Holland,  of  Sanctan- 
drewes  in  Scotland,  of  Heidelberg,  Geneva,  and  other  like 
famous  scholes  of  learning  in  the  Low  countries,  Scotland, 
Germany,  and  France."  This  book  gives  their  general 
beliefs  and  their  platform  of  church  government,  but  is 
not  detailed  enough  to  be  of  assistance  in  the  present  study. 
But  in  their  Third  Petition  to  King  James,  their  principles  in 
regard  to  marriage  are  clearly  expressed: 

"The  Ministers  aforesaid  lawfully  called  by  the  Church  where 
they  are  to  administer  ought  to  continue  their  functions  according 
to  Gods  ordinance,  and  carefully  to  feed  the  flock  of  Christ  com- 
mitted vnto  them:  Being  not  inioyned  or  suffred  to  beare  civil 
oflEices  withall,  neither  burthened  with  the  execution  of  civil  affaires, 
as  the  celebratio  of  Mariage,  burying  the  dead,  &c.  which  thinges 
belong  as  well  to  those  without  as  within  the  Church."  2 

That  the  Independents  continued  this  practice  in  England 
is  shown  by  a  passage  from  Rogers^  Matrimoniall  Honovr  in 
1642.  In  discussing  marriage  by  ministers,  he  says:  "In 
the  Scriptures,  we  see  it  was  civilly  carried,  and  dispatcht 
by  the  Elders  at  the  gate:  and  now  in  some  of  the  reformed 

1  These  dates  are  given  in  the  prefaces  contained  in  An  Apologie 
or  Defense  of  .  .  .  Brownists,  pp.  15  and  5  respectively.  Baillie  {Dis- 
svasive,  f .  *4  6)  gives  the  date  1602  for  the  publication  of  the  Confession 
of  Faith.     This  Confession  is  also  contained  in  the  Apologie. 

2  Third  Petition  (contained  in  the  Apologie),  p.  54.  Further  evidence 
showing  the  opinion  and  practice  of  both  the  Independents  and  the 
Puritans  may  be  found  in  Certain  Letters  (from  exiles  in  Holland), 
1602  (Hanbury,  I,  144) ;  A  Confession  of  Certain  Christians  in  England, 
1616  (Hanbin-y,  I,  300);  Francis  Johnson,  A  Christian  Plea,  1617 
(Hanbury,  I,  319).  See  also  the  quotations  from  J.  Paget,  Edwards, 
and  E.  Paget,  pp.  43-44,  above,  and  those  from  Baillie  and  Robinson, 
pp.  52-53,  below. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  49 

Churches,  we  see  its  performed  in  like  sort,  officers  being 
appointed  to  take  their  names,  to  booke  them  in  a  Record 
and  so  with  a  short  ceremony  to  dismiss  them."  ^  Finally, 
in  1653,  Cromwell  established  civil  marriage  by  law. 


IV.     Continental,  Scottish,  and  American 
Churches 

We  have  already  seen  that  in  Holland  the  state  declared 
marriage  a  civil  affair  and  insisted  that  the  contract  be  made 
before  a  civil  magistrate;  we  have  also  seen  that  the  church 
continued  to  celebrate  it  by  a  solemnization  of  the  vows 
previously  made  before  the  state.  Calvin  does  not  seem 
to  have  expressed  himself  in  print  on  the  question  of  the 
contract  of  matrimony;  but  from  the  fact  that  the  Holland 
and  Scottish  churches,  which  emphasized  the  civil  celebra- 
tion, took  their  discipline  directly  from  the  church  of  Geneva, 
it  is  clear  that  the  church  there  also  followed  Luther's 
principle  of  making  the  spousals  the  all-important  element. 
This  fact  is  borne  out  by  the  form  of  ceremony  of  the  English 
church  of  Geneva,  which  was  approved  by  Calvin  himself. 
Instead  of  combining  the  forms  for  spousals  de  futuro  and 
de  praesenti  with  prayers  and  ceremonies  by  the  minister, 
as  is  the  case  in  the  marriage  service  of  the  English  Prayer 
Book  of  Edward  VI,  the  Geneva  reform  liturgy,  after  pre- 
liminary exhortation  and  public  inquiry  as  to  impediments, 
simply  requires  the  man  to  declare  himself  according  to 
the  following  oath  put  by  the  minister: 

"You,  N.  shall  protest  here  before  God,  and  his  holy  Congrega- 
tion, that  you  have  taken,  and  are  now  content  to  have  N.  here 

1  Rogers,  op.  dt.,  p.  110.  Any  description  of  the  civil  ceremony 
approved  by  the  Independents  is  lacking,  but  it  would  seem  that  it 
consisted  merely  of  a  few  words  spoken  by  the  magistrate  immediately 
after  the  public  performance  of  spousals  de  praesenti.  The  ceremony, 
however,  was  clearly  a  civil  procedure  and  not  merely  a  form  of  pub- 
lic spousals. 


50  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

present  to  your  lawful!  wife,  promising  to  keep  her,  to  love  and 
intreat  her  in  all  things  according  to  the  duty  of  a  faithfuU  husband, 
forsaking  all  other  during  her  life,  and  briefly,  to  Uve  in  a  holy  con- 
versation with  her,  keeping  faith  and  truth  in  all  points,  according 
as  the  word  of  God  and  his  holy  Gospel  doth  command/'  i 

The  points  to  be  noted  here  are:  first,  there  is  no  marrying 
or  proclaiming  of  "man  and  wife''  by  the  minister;  second, 
there  is  nothing  to  the  effect  that  "  God  hath  joined  together  " ; 
and  third,  the  words  on  the  part  of  the  contracting  couple 
are  merely  an  acknowledgment  that  they  have,  before  this 
time,  taken  one  another  as  man  and  wife.  These  points 
contrast  strongly  with  the  orthodox  ceremony  of  the  Edward 
VI  Prayer  Book  and  later  liturgies.  Thus  marriage  at 
Geneva,  like  the  one  overseen  by  Greenwood  in  the  Fleet 
prison,  was  merely  a  contract  before  witnesses,  which  the 
church  might  bless  with  its  solemnization  and  prayers  if 
the  parties  so  desired. 

In  Scotland  to  this  day  marriage  may  be  made  without 
any  oflficial  intervention,  by  means  of  spousals  de  praesenti 
either  with  or  without  witnesses.  This  is  both  interesting 
and  important,  as  it  shows  that  although  the  Scotch  Pres- 
byterian Church  had  a  marriage  ceremony  in  its  liturgy,  it 
nevertheless  considered  the  actual  marriage  contract  a 
private  affair.  In  other  words,  the  Romish  influence  in 
Scotland  has  never  at  any  time  been  strong  enough  to  make 

*  The  Forme  of  Prayers  and  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  p.  25. 
The  woman,  of  course,  makes  a  similar  vow.  Preceding  the  Form  of 
Marriage  in  these  liturgies,  there  is  this  note  of  direction:  "After  the 
banes  or  contract  have  been  published  three  severall  dayes  in  the  con- 
gregation (to  the  intent  that  if  any  person  have  interest  or  title  of  either 
parties,  they  may  have  suflSicient  time  to  make  their  challenge)  the 
parties  assemble  at  the  beginning  of  the  Sermon,  and  the  minister  at 
time  convenient  saith  as  followeth."  Then  comes  the  exhortation  etc. 
as  described  above.  Compare  this  ceremony  with  that  of  the  early 
Dutch  church,  pp.  38-39  and  note,  above. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  51 

secularly  performed  marriages  in  any  sense  clandestine. 
But  the  church  did  provide  a  ceremony  for  those  who 
wished  it  and  doubtless  urged  its  use  upon  the  people. 
Its  form  was  taken  over  bodily  in  1564,  along  with  the  rest 
of  the  service  book,  from  the  English  church  at  Geneva, 
which  has  already  been  discussed.^  The  only  other  note 
that  I  find  in  regard  to  the  Scottish  ceremony  is  an  item 
in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,^  1581,  to  the  effect  that 
among  the  duties  of  a  minister  "it  belongs  to  him  likewise, 
after  lawful  Proceeding  in  the  matter  by  the  Eldership,  to 
solemnize  Marriage  betwixt  them  as  are  to  be  joined  therein, 
and  to  pronounce  the  Blessing  of  the  Lord  upon  them."  ^ 

In  considering  the  Puritans  of  New  England,  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  they  were  of  the  Independent  sect  and 
shared  the  extreme  views  already  discussed.  It  is  well 
known  that  marriage  in  New  England  was  a  civil  affair 
from  the  first,  but  the  origin  of  this  practice  has  not  here- 
tofore been  definitely  determined.^  From  my  demonstration 
of  the  practice  of  the  Independents,  together  with  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  congregation  of  John  Robinson,  Brown's 
leading  disciple,  which  first  emigrated  to  this  country,  it 
is  fairly  obvious  that  the  early  American  civil  marriage  was 
a  direct  result  of  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Church,  encouraged  perhaps  by  the  state  laws  of 
Holland.    But  as  the  point  is  here  made  for  the  first  time, 

*  This  fact  is  stated  on  the  title  page  of  the  Scottish  book  of  liturgies, 
which  may  be  found  in  The  Confessions  of  Faith  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. John  Knox  {History  of  Reformation  in  Scotland,  p.  333)  states 
that  the  Church  of  Scotland  sent  an  official  reply  in  1566  to  the  confes- 
sion of  faith  of  the  continental  Reform  churches  to  the  effect  that 
"they  agreed  in  all  points  with  those  churches  and  differed  in  nothing 
from  them"  except  in  the  keeping  of  certain  festal  days. 

'  Contained  in  The  Confessions. 
3  Op.  cit.,  p.  459. 

*  Howard,  II,  127  £f.,  devotes  several  pages  to  the  different  sup- 
posed causes  of  the  New  England  civil  marriage. 


/^ff 


52  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

it  will  be  well  to  quote  some  further  evidence  in  support 
of  it. 

This  evidence  we  find  in  contemporary  pamphlets,  by 
which  we  are  able  to  set  forth  the  whole  course  of  events. 
Robert  Baillie,  writing  in  ^60fr  of  the  Independents,  says: 
"For  the  marriage  blessing,  they  applaud  the  Brownists 
Doctrin,  they  send  it  from  the  Church  to  the  Town-house, 
making  its  solemnization  the  duty  of  the  Magistrate;  this 
is  the  constant  practise  of  all  in  New  England:  the  prime 
of  the  Independent  Ministers  now  at  London,  have  beene 
married  by  the  Magistrate,  and  all  that  can  be  obtained  of 
any  of  them,  is  to  be  content  that  a  Minister  in  the  name  of 
the  Magistrate  and  his  Commissioner  may  solemnize  that 
holy  band."  ^  A  passage  from  Ephriam  Paget  serves  to 
continue  the  story.  Speaking  of  the  spread  of  the  Brownist 
doctrines,  he  says:  ''The  first  man  of  note  that  held  their 
opinions  (as  Mr.  Edwards  writeth)  was  one  Mr.  Robinson, 
who  leaving  Norwich  male-content,  became  a  rigid  Brownist: 
but  afterwards  by  some  conference  with  learned  men,  he 
was  brought  to  some  moderation,  and  writ  a  book  recanting 
some  of  his  opinions.  This  man  dying,^  many  of  his  congre- 
gation went  from  Leyden  unto  New  England,  and  planted 
at  new  Plymouth,  whither  they  carried  Mr.  Robinsons 
opinions,  which  spread  far  there:  and  by  letters  also  and 
other  meanes  were  conveighed  into  old  England:  and  to  this 
purpose  he  citeth  a  letter  by  Master  Cottens."  ^  Finally, 
we  have  the  expression  of  Robinson  himself  in  his  defense 
of  the  Brownists  in  1619.     ''We  cannot  assent,"  he  says, 

1  Baillie,  Dissvasive,  p.  115.  See  also  Lechford,  Plaine-dealing:  or, 
Newes  from  New  England,  p.  39,  which  Baillie  cites  as  his  authority. 

2  The  writer  is  mistaken  here.  The  Mayflower  sailed  before  Robin- 
son's death. 

'  Paget,  Heresiography,  p.  69.  The  reference  to  "Mr.  Edwards"  is 
to  Thomas  Edwards,  Answer  to  the  Apologeticall  Narration.  "Master 
Cottens"  is  doubtless  John  Cotton. 


CONTROVERSIES   REGARDING  MARRIAGE  53 

"to  the  receaved  opinion  and  practice  answerable  in  the 
Reformed  Churches,  by  which  Pastours  thereof  do  cele- 
brate Marriage  pubUquely  and  by  vertue  of  their  office."^ 
The  first  marriage  in  New  England  was  that  of  Edward 
Winslow  and  Susanna  White  in  1621,  performed  ''accord- 
ing to  the  laudable  custome  of  the  Low-countries  ...  as 
being  a  civill  thing."  ^  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the 
church  was  not  allowed  to  invoke  a  blessing  upon  this  union, 
for  even  the  Brownist  Greenwood  offered  a  prayer  at  the 
marriage  in  the  Fleet;  nevertheless  the  ceremony  itself  was 
a  civil  one.  "Thus,  in  the  first  New  England  wedding,  a 
precedent  was  given  which  has  never  yet  been  set  aside, 
and  which  marked  clearly  the  distinction  between  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  civil  power  in  'causes  matrimoniar  and 
the  legitimate  jurisdiction  of  the  church."  ^  The  same  kind 
of  ceremony  is  recorded  by  Governor  Winthrop  at  a  wedding 
solemnized  at  Boston  in  1647.  The  minister  of  the  bride- 
groom's church  had  been  asked  to  preach,  but  the  magis- 
trates objected  to  this  and  gave  as  one  of  their  reasons  that 
they  "were  not  willing  to  bring  in  the  English  custom  of 
ministers  performing  the  solemnity  of  marriage,  which 
sermons  at  such  times  might  induce,  but  if  any  ministers 
were  present,  and  would  bestow  a  word  of  exhortation,  etc., 
it  was  permitted.''  *    The  practice  recorded  in  these  two 

1  Robinson,  Apologie,  p.  40.  This  book  was  first  published  in  Latin 
in  1619  under  the  title  Apologia  .  .  .  quorundam  Christianorum 
.  .  .  dictorum  Brownistorum.  It  was  translated  in  1625  under  the 
title  A  iust  and  necessarie  Apologie  of  certain  Christians  .  .  .  called 
Brownists  or  Barrowists.  It  must  not  be  confused  with  the  anonymous 
Apologie  or  Defense  of  .  .  .  Brovvnists,  1604. 

*  This  was  Winslow's  second  marriage.  He  was  first  married  in 
Holland  "before  the  magistrats  in  the  Town  or  Stat  house."  Bradford, 
History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  I,  216  and  n.  4. 

^  Bacon,  Genesis  of  New  England  Churches,  p.  341. 

*  Winthrop,  History  of  New  England,  II,  382. 


54  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  KELATIONS 

instances  was  first  given  legal  authority  in  Massachusetts, 
in  1646,  when  a  statute  was  passed  providing  "that  no  person 
whatsoever  in  this  Jurisdiction  shall  joyne  any  persons 
together  in  Marriage,  but  the  Magistrate,  or  such  other  as  the 
General  Court,  or  Court  of  Assistants  shal  Authorize."  ^ 
Commenting  upon  the  New  England  marriage  ceremony, 
Howard  says:  "The  conception  of  wedlock  which  existed 
there  from  the  beginning  was  identical  with  that  which 
later  found  expression  in  the  writings  of  Milton  and  the 
legislation  of  Cromwell."  ^ 


V.  The  English  Church  op  the  Commonwealth 

It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  these  conditions  in  the 
churches  of  the  continent,  Scotland,  and  New  England, 
together  with  the  practice  of  the  Independents  in  England 
itself,  should  not  affect  both  EngHsh  public  opinion  in  gen- 
eral and  the  doctrines  of  the  more  conservative  Reformed 
churches  of  England  in  regard  to  marriage.  The  separa- 
tion between  the  latter  and  those  outside  the  mother  country 
was  much  less  than  may  be  thought.  There  was  constant 
intercourse  and  exchange  of  views  among  all  parties,  both 
by  actual  meeting  of  representatives  and  by  letters  to  and 
fro.  Among  the  tracts  of  the  Thomason  collection,  are 
letters  from  one  church  to  another  asking  advice  and  dis- 
cussing practices,  pamphlets  of  all  kinds  on  ecclesiastical 
questions  of  the  day,  petitions,  protests,  apologies,  defenses, 
etc.  Ministers  and  others  even  returned  from  the  New 
England  colonies  and  advocated  the  practices  in  vogue 
there.  Edward  Winslow,  above  mentioned,  on  a  visit  to 
England  in  1634,  openly  defended  the  practice  of  civil 
marriage  and  was  imprisoned  in  the  Fleet  for  seventeen 

^  Whitmore,  Colonial  Laws  of  Massachusetts ^  p.  172. 
«  Howaxd,  II,  127. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  55 

weeks  as  a  consequence.  Despite  the  censorship  of  the 
press,  a  good  deal  of  controversial  writing  by  the  adherents 
of  the  various  sects  got  into  print,  but  on  account  of  the 
number  and  importance  of  other  questions,  there  is  little  that 
throws  any  light  upon  the  trend  of  public  opinion  on  our 
subject.  The  tracts  already  cited,  together  with  Winslow^s 
imprisonment,  incline  us  to  believe  that  the  more  conserva- 
tive reformers  clung  tenaciously  to  the  ecclesiastical  cere- 
mony, but  at  the  same  time  they  give  evidence  that  this 
was  done  more  for  the  sake  of  expediency  than  because 
marriage  was  thought  to  be  essentially  a  religious  affair.^ 
John  Donne  probably  expressed  the  general  conservative 
point  of  view  in  saying,  "As  marriage  is  a  civil  contract,  it 
must  be  done  so  in  pubhc,  as  that  it  may  have  the  testimony 
of  men;  as  marriage  is  a  religious  contract,  it  must  be  so 
done,  as  that  it  may  have  the  benediction  of  the  priest:  in 
a  marriage  without  testimony  of  men  they  cannot  claim 
any  benefit  by  the  law;  in  a  marriage  without  the  bene- 
diction of  the  priest  they  cannot  claim  any  benefit  of  the 
Church."  2  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  from  such 
testimony  as  that  of  Rogers  and  Baillie  that  among  the 
Independents  marriage  was  actually  performed  by  the 
magistrate.^ 

The  result  of  all  these  influences  upon  the  parhamentary 
assembly  of  divines  was  to  effect  a  compromise  by  which 
it  was  "judged  expedient  that  marriage  be  solemnized  by 
a  lawful  minister,"  but  evidently  from  the  phraseology  used, 
a  marriage  made  either  privately  or  by  magistrate  was  still 
deemed  valid.  This  decision,  drawn  up  by  the  assembly  in 
1643,  was  made  law  by  act  of  Parliament  on  Jan.  3,  1645, 

*  See  especially  the  quotation  from  E.  Paget,  pp.  43-44,  above. 

*  Donne,  Works,  IV,  33.  See  also  the  preface  to  the  marriage  ser- 
vice in  the  Directory,  p.  56,  below. 

»  See  above,  pp.  48,  52. 


56  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

and  published  in  the  Directory  of  Public  Worship.  The 
ceremony  itself  was  adapted  from  that  of  the  Scotch  Pres- 
byterian church,  which,  as  said  above,  ca9ie  verbatim  from 
the  English  Church  at  Geneva.  A  prefatory  paragraph 
gives  the  authorized  position  of  the  Reformed  churches  on 
the  subject: 

"Although  Marriage  be  no  Sacrament,  nor  peculiar  to  the 
Church  of  God,  but  common  to  mankinde,  and  of  publique  interest 
in  every  Commonwealth,  yet  because  such  as-rtiarry  are  to  marry 
in  the  Lord,  and  have  especiall  need  of  Instruction,  Direction,  and 
Exhortation,  from  the  Word  of  God,  at  their  entring  into  such  a  new 
condition;  and  of  the  blessing  of  God  upon  them  therein,  we  ju(ige 
it  expedient,  that  marriage  be  solemnized  by  a  lawfull  Minister 
of  the  Word,  that  he  may  accordingly  councel  them  and  pray  for  a 
blessing  upon  them."  i 

The  ceremony  itself  consists  of  a  short  exhortation  and 
instruction,  the  exchange  of  vows  between  the  man  and  the 
woman,  the  pronunciation  of  them  as  ''man  and  wife'' 
by  the  minister,  and  a  concluding  prayer.  Altogether  the 
form  is  much  shorter  and  much  simpler  than  that  of  the 
Edward  VI  Prayer  Book,  towards  which  the  Reformers  were 
united  in  their  objection.  The  vows,  similar  for  both  man 
and  woman,  followed  these  words: 

"I,  N,  doe  take  thee  N.  to  be  my  married  Wife,  and  doe,  in  the 
presence  of  God,  and  before  this  congregation,  promise  and  cove- 
nant to  be  a  loving  and  faithful  Husband  unto  thee,  untill  God  shall 
separate  us  by  death."  2 

This  ceremony  acknowledges  the  office  of  the  church  to  a 
greater  extent  than  did  the  original  one  of  Geneva,  as  ap- 
proved by  the  Synod  of  Dort  in  1618,  the  chief  difference 
being  the  minister's  pronouncing  the  couple  "man  and 
wife."     But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  ancient  custom 

1  Scobell,  I,  86. 

2  IMd.,  I,  87. 


CONTROVERSIES  REGARDING  MARRIAGE  57 

of  marriage  by  spousals  de  praesenti  was  given  up;  on  the  '^ 
contrary,  the  omission  of  the  first  part  of  the  existing  ortho- 
dox ceremony  from  the  new  form,  is  evidence  that  it  con- 
tinued to  be  used  as  the  form  for  spousals.  Furthermore, 
in  legal  circles,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  spousals  de 
praesenti  were  still  regarded  as  marriage  and  impeded  any 
other  union. 

We  may  infer  from  this  and  from  Cromwell's  marriage 
act  eight  years  later  that  the  conflict  of  authority  in  the 
two  methods  of  effecting  matrimony  still  produced  an  un- 
satisfactory state  of  affairs;  or,  to  put  it  differently,  the 
particular  conditions  which  previously  had  been  a  source 
of  evils  and  entanglements  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  re- 
mained unaltered.  As  a  result,  it  was  soon  reahzed  that 
marriage  must  be  regarded  as  either  entirely  a  civil  or 
entirely  an  ecclesiastical  affair,  and  that  any  combination 
of  the  two  authorities  was  sure  to  be  disastrous. 

The  question  before  the  EngUsh  nation  evidently  was: 
Should  the  contract,  or  spousals  de  praesenti,  already 
acknowledged  as  marriage  itself,  be  considered  as  the 
authorized  ceremony;  or  should  the  church  be  given  com- 
plete authority  to  perform  marriage,  and  some  attempt  be 
made  to  invalidate  the  force  and  permanency  of  the  private 
contract?  ^  For  some  reason,  there  seems  to  be  little  or 
no  expression  of  opinion  on  this  subject  from  the  time  the 
assembly  deemed  it  expedient  that  marriage  be  an  eccle- 
siastical office  to  the  passage  of  the  civil  marriage  act;  but 
we  may  be  sure,  from  the  previously  expressed  sentiments 

^  No  one  hitherto  seems  to  have  looked  at  the  question  in  this  way. 
The  general  impression  among  historians  seems  to  be  that  Cromwell's 
act  flew  in  the  face  of  all  existing  conditions  and  instituted  an  entirely 
new  marriage  process.  I  think  I  have  demonstrated  that  such  was  not 
the  case,  especially  as  the  church  ceremony  continued  to  be  used  in 
addition  to  the  civil  after  the  latter  was  estabUshed  in  1653. 


58  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

of  the  Independents  and  from  the  readiness  of  Parliament  to 
pass  Cromwell's  act,  that  the  subject  continued  to  be 
debated  with  increasing  tendency  towards  the  more  radical 
attitude.  At  any  rate,  the  decision  was  j&nally  reached  to 
follow  the  teachings  of  the  German  Reformers  and  the  Eng- 
hsh  Independents  and  the  practice  of  Holland  and  New 
England,  and  to  put  all  marital  affairs  into  the  hands  of 
the  state.  That  is,  the  power  of  the  church  was  abolished, 
and  spousals  de  praesenti  performed  before  the  civil  magis- 
trate and  in  the  presence  of  two  witnesses,  became  the  actual 
and  authorized  form  of  marriage.  This  was  accomplished 
by  an  act  of  Parliament  in  1653,  according  to  which  the 
ceremony  consisted  simply  of  the  vows  as  set  forth  in  the 
Directory,  slightly  changed  in  wording,  without  prayer  or 
exhortation.     The  act  concludes: 

"And  it  is  further  Enacted,  That  the  Man  and  Woman  having 
made  sufficient  proof  of  the  Consent  of  their  Parents  or  Guardians 
as  aforesaid,  and  expressed  their  consent  unto  Marriage,  in  the 
maner  and  by  the  words  aforesaid,  before  such  Justice  of  the  Peace 
in  the  presence  of  two  or  more  credible  Witnesses;  The  said  Justice 
of  the  Peace  may  and  shall  declare  the  said  Man  and  Woman  to  be 
from  thenceforth  Husband  and  Wife;  and  from  and  after  such 
consent  so  expressed,  and  such  declaration  made,  the  same  (as  to 
the  form  of  Marriage)  shall  be  good  and  effectual  in  Law.  And  no 
other  Marriage  whatsoever  within  the  Commonwealth  of  England 
after  Sept.  29,  1653,  shall  be  held  or  accompted  a  Marriage  accord- 
ing to  the  Laws  of  England."  ^ 

My  contention  that  this  was  not  a  revolutionary  measure 
but  merely  a  shifting  of  the  emphasis  from  the  ecclesiastical 

^  Scobell,  II,  236;  also  to  be  found  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time. 
Howard,  I,  424  ff.,  makes  a  great  deal  of  the  stipulation  in  this  act 
that  marriages  must  be  properly  recorded  in  special  parish  registers. 
He  seems  to  overlook  the  fact  that  this  same  clause  was  contained  in 
the  Directory  eight  years  earlier. 


CONTROVERSIES   REGARDING  MARRIAGE  59 

celebration  to  the  private,  is  borne  out  by  the  lack  of  writing 
in  opposition  to  the  change  ^  and  by  the  continuation  of  the 
church  ceremony  as  a  blessing  of  God  upon  the  contract 
civilly  made,  just  as  the  Independents  had  consistently 
claimed  it  to  be.  Jeaffreson  in  his  Brides  and  Bridals 
makes  the  statement  that  usually  "the  wedding  was  relig- 
iously solemnized  in  the  church,  after  or  before  the  per- 
formance of  the  purely  civil  affirmation  in  the  magistrate's 
parlour  ...  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  the 
Directory  for  Public  Worship."  ^  There  can  be  no  doubt, 
however,  that  the  civil  marriage  was  condemned  by  the 
more  orthodox  clergy,  especially  those  who  still  supported 
episcopacy,  and  by  the  political  and  religious  enemies  of 
Cromwell,  who  saw  in  the  act  only  another  unreasonable 
measure  by  a  tyranical  usurper.  The  act,  nevertheless, 
had  the  support  of  the  Independents  at  least,  of  whom 
Milton  was  the  most  prominent  and  the  most  powerful. 

^  Of  course,  the  censorship  of  the  press  might  account  for  this  to 
some  extent.  In  looking  through  the  Thomason  tracts  of  the  period, 
I  find  only  one,  aside  from  newspapers  (which  contain  nothing  of  im- 
portance), that  mentions  the  subject  at  all.  This  is  a  Letter  from  a 
Gentleman  in  the  Country,  which  is  chiefly  a  defense  of  the  form  used 
by  the  church  and  an  expression  of  the  writer's  failure  to  see  any 
need  for  the  new  act.  Howard,  I,  432,  n.  1,  accepts  Friedberg's  sug- 
gestion {Eheschliessung,  328,  n.  2)  that  the  controversial  literature  on 
the  subject  may  have  been  great,  but  observes  that,  if  so,  little  has 
been  preserved.  In  the  Sutro  collection  (San  Francisco)  of  thousands 
of  pamphlets  of  the  time,  he  was  able  to  find  only  one,  omitting  news- 
papers, on  this  topic.  Friedberg,  he  says,  had  a  similar  experience  in 
the  BerUn  library.  The  British  Museum,  according  to  my  experience, 
yields  but  one  more,  and  that  not  controversial.  It  seems  time,  there- 
fore, to  give  up  the  idea  that  there  was  written  controversy  on  the  sub- 
ject, especially  as  Thomason  is  known  to  have  obtained  practically  all 
tracts  of  any  importance  during  this  period  for  the  Museum  library. 
Of  course,  satirists  took  occasion  to  poke  fun,  but  such  writing  may  be 
disregarded  here.    For  references  to  it,  see  Howard,  I,  432-3. 

2  Jeafifreson,  II,  69.    See  also  Howard,  I,  419,  n.  2. 


60  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

In  his  treatise  The  Likeliest  Means  to  remove  Hirelings  out 
of  the  Church,  published  in  1659,  he  reasserts  the  position 
originally  laid  down  by  the  Brownists,  summarizes  the 
history  of  ecclesiastical  marriage,  and  upholds  firmly  Crom- 
well's act: 

"As  for  marriages,  that  ministers  should  meddle  with  them,  as 
not  sanctified  or  legitimate,  without  their  celebration,  I  find  no 
ground  in  scripture  either  of  precept  or  example.  Likehest  it  is 
.  .  .  that  in  imitation  of  heathen  priests,  who  were  wont  at  nup- 
tuals  to  use  many  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  especially,  judging  it 
would  be  profitable,  and  the  increase  of  their  authority,  not  to  be 
spectators  only  in  business  of  such  concernment  to  the  life  of  man, 
they  insinuated  that  marriage  was  not  holy  without  their  benediction, 
and  for  the  better  colour,  made  a  sacrament;  being  of  itseK  a  civil 
ordinance,  a  household  contract,  a  thing  indifferent  and  free  to  the 
whole  race  of  mankind,  not  as  religious,  but  as  men:  best,  indeed, 
undertaken  to  religious  ends,  and  as  the  apostle  saith,  I  Cor.  vii, 
'  in  the  Lord.'  Yet  not  therefore  invalid  or  unholy  without  a  minister 
and  his  pretended  necessary  hallowing,  more  than  any  other  act, 
enterprise,  or  contract  of  civil  life,  which  ought  all  to  be  done  in 
the  Lord  and  to  his  glory:  all  which,  no  less  than  marriage,  were 
by  the  cunning  of  priests  heretofore,  as  material  to  their  profit, 
transacted  at  the  altar.  Our  divines  deny  it  to  be  a  sacrament; 
yet  retain  the  celebration,  till  prudently  a  late  parliament  recov- 
ered the  civil  liberty  of  marriage  from  their  encroachment,  and 
transferred  the  ratifying  and  registering  thereof  from  the  canonical 
shop  to  the  proper  cognizance  of  civil  magistrates."  ^ 

^  Milton,  Prose  Works,  III,  370.  Notice  that  it  is  the  "ratifying 
and  registering"  on  which  Milton  lays  emphasis,  following  out  the 
theory  that  marriage  itself  was  a  private  affair,  "a  household  contract." 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  ATTEMPTED  REFORM  OF  DIVORCE 

I.  Legal  Situation 

When  England  under  Henry  VIII  broke  away  from  the 
Church  of  Rome,  the  canon  laws  of  Catholicism  in  regard 
to  divorce  remained  in  operation;  indeed,  the  English 
Protestant  church  never  has  drawn  up  a  code  of  laws  to 
supersede  them.  The  j&rst  movement  towards  any  actual 
reform  of  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrines  or  church  govern- 
ment was  the  appointment  of  a  committee,  in  accordance 
with  the  act  of  25  Henry  VIII,  ca.  19  (1534),  to  draw  up  a 
new  platform  for  the  ecclesiastical  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  England.  In  the  meantime,  however,  it  was  provided 
that  "suche  canons  constitucions  ordynaunces  andSynodals 
provynciall  being  allredy  made,  which  be  not  contraryant 
nor  repugnant  to  the  lawes  statutes  and  customes  of  this 
Realme  nor  to  the  damage  or  hurte  of  the  Kynges  preroga- 
tyve  Royall,  shall  mowe  styll  be  used  and  executed.'*  ^ 
The  loose  terms  herein  contained  were  never  more  fully 
defined;  and  the  evil  practices  in  divorce  cases,  which  con- 
tinued unabated  pending  the  action  of  the  committee,  led 
to  the  King's  wholesale  attempt  in  1540  to  stop  divorces 
and  separations  altogether,  except  in  cases  of  marriage 
within  the  forbidden  degrees.  Previous  to  this  date,  Strype 
tells  us,  divorces,  or  rather  annulments  of  marriage,  "might- 
ily prevailed.  .  .  .  For  it  was  ordinary  to  annull  marriage 
and  divorce  man  and  wife  on  some  pretext  of  precontract.''  ^ 

1  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  III,  461. 

'  Strype,  Memorials  oj  Cranmer,  I,  114.  . 

61- 


V     !^ 


62  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

The  preamble  to  the  famous  act  of  1540,  known  as  32  Hen. 
VIII,  ca.  38,  is  very  instructive  in  regard  to  the  conditions 
of  the  time,  and  expresses  practically  the  same  opinions 
concerning  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  over  marital  affairs 
as  were  later  proclaimed  in  Parliament  in  1607  and  by 
Milton  in  his  pamphlet  of  1659;^  but  it  is  too  long  to 
quote  in  full.     It  may  be  abbreviated  as  follows: 

"Whereas  heretofore  the  usurped  power  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
hathe  alwayes  entangled  and  troubled  the  mere  jurisdiction  and 
legal  power  of  this  Realme  of  England  and  also  unquietid  muche  the 
subjectis  of  the  same  ...  by  making  that  unlaufuU  whiche  by 
Goddis  wourde  is  laufull  bothe  in  mariages  and  other  thinges;  .  .  . 
mariages  have  been  brought  into  suche  uncertainty  thereby  that  no 
mariage  coulde  be  so  surely  knytt  and  bounden  but  it  shulde  lye 
in  either  of  the  parties  power  and  arbitre  ...  to  prove  a  precon- 
tracte  a  kynnerede  an  alhance  or  a  carnall  knowledge  to  defeate 
the  same.  ...  Be  it  therefore  enacted  .  .  .  [that]  .  .  .  suche 
mariages  being  contracte  and  solemnised  in  the  face  of  the  churche 
and  constimate  with  bodily  knowledge  .  .  .  shalbe  .  .  .  taken  to 
be  lauful  good  juste  and  indissoluble,  .  .  .  notwithstanding  any 
precontracte  .  .  .  not  consumate  with  bodily  knowledge  .  .  .  [or] 
.  .  .  any  dispensation  prescription  lawe  or  other  thinge  .  .  . 
And  that  no  reservation  or  prohibition,  Goddis  law  except,  shall 
trouble  or  impeche  anny  mariage  without  the  Leviticall  degrees."  ^ 

The  church,  however,  maintained  its  former  power  on 
the  ground  that  the  phrase  "God's  law  excepted*'  applied 
to  all  marriages  made  in  the  face  of  the  recognized  eccle- 
siastical impediments,  and  that  any  such  contract  was  void 
ah  initio.  Thus  the  entire  act  was  made  of  no  effect  in 
actual  application.  Of  conditions  following  this  attempt  to 
curtail  the  power  of  the  church,  T.  E.  says:  ''This  Statute, 
though  it  seemed  to  be  made  vpon  good  and  great  considera- 

*  See  Strype,  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  I,  30,  57. 
«  Statutes,  III,  792. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF  DIVORCE  63 

tions,  (because  precontracts  too  too  slenderly  proued,  and 
sometime  but  onely  surmized,  helped  the  Romish  oppres- 
sion .  .  .)  yet  many  did  after  the  making  of  it,  very  disso- 
lutely come  from  their  first  vowes,  .  .  .  slipperily  leaning 
their  former  Contracts."  ^  Meanwhile  the  committee  of 
thirty-two,  provided  for  in  the  act  of  25  Hen.  VIII,  ca.  19, 
was  at  work.  According  to  Milton,  it  was  composed  of 
*' divines  and  lawyers,  of  whom  Cranmer,  the  archbishop, 
Peter  Martyr,  and  Walter  Haddon  (not  without  the  assist- 
ance of  sir  John  Cheeke  .  .  .  )  were  the  chief."  ^ 

The  Reformatio  Legum  Ecclesiasticarum,  as  the  decisions 
of  this  committee  were  called,  shows  clearly  the  influence 
of  Luther's  teachings  and  of  German  practices.  The  former 
were  followed  implicitly  in  the  abolition  of  separation  a 
mensa  et  thoro  and  in  the  establishment  of  actual  divorce 
with  permission  for  the  innocent  party  to  remarry  for  the 
causes  of  desertion,  adultery,  and  other  ill  usages,  in  prac- 
tical accordance  with  the  Zurich  marriage  ordinance  of  1525.^ 
Furthermore,  husband  and  wife  were  put  upon  equal  footing 
in  divorce  suits.  In  regard  to  the  impediments  and  the 
annulment  of  marriage,  the  King's  committee  expressed 
itself  much  more  definitely  than  did  the  German  Reformers, 
who  rather  shirked  the  whole  situation;  but  in  their  recom- 
mendations thereupon  they  harked  back  to  the  Romish 
canons,  and  except  for  one  or  two  details,  suggested  no 
changes  in  the  existing  conditions.  The  Reformatio  Legum 
is  important  only  in  showing  the  attitude  of  the  public 
leaders  of  the  day,  for  Henry  died  before  he  could  force  it 
through  Parliament,   and  it  was  defeated  under  Edward 

1  T.  E.,  Lawes  Resolvtions  of  W omens  Rights,  Bk.  II,  sec.  xxix. 
»  Milton,  Prose  Works,  II,  237.    Milton  is  mistaken  in  saying  (ibid.) 
that  the  committee  was  appointed  by  Edward  VI. 
'  See  above,  p.  12,  n.  3. 


64  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

VI  by  the  House  of  Commons.^  Thus  the  old  Catholic 
regime  with  all  its  abuses  continued.  Strype  says  that  at 
this  time  annulment  and  divorce  were  frequent.  **  Noble- 
men would  very  frequently  put  away  their  wives  and  marry 
others  if  they  like  another  woman  better  or  were  like  to  ob- 
tain wealth  by  her.  And  they  would  sometimes  pretend 
their  wives  to  be  false  to  their  beds  and  so  be  divorced  and 
marry  again  such  as  they  pleased."  ^ 

From  this  time  on  to  Cromwell's  day,  actual  conditions 
remained  unchanged.  The  decree  of  32  Hen.  VIII,  ca.  38, 
was  repealed  and  repassed  alternately  until  the  Star  Chamber 
finally  established  it  permanently  in  1601,  but  it  seems 

^  That  the  bill  was  defeated  by  the  Commons  without  ever  reach- 
ing the  Lords,  is  illuminating  in  showing  how  little  the  Reformation 
had  as  yet  actually  touched  English  public  opinion. 

2  Quoted  by  Kitchin,  A  History  of  Divorce,  p.  177.  Kitchin  adds: 
"Thus  the  Earl  of  Pembroke  divorced  his  first  wife  and  married  a 
daughter  of  Sir  Phihp  Sidney."  He  is  badly  mixed  here.  Sidney  had 
but  one  daughter,  and  she  married  the  Earl  of  Rutland.  Pembroke's 
first  marriage,  however,  was  annulled,  after  which  he  did  marry  again; 
his  second  wife  died,  and  he  then  married  Mary  Sidney,  the  famous 
sister  of  the  poet. 

The  case  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  Bothwell  is  still  more  inter- 
esting. In  the  first  place,  Bothwell  got  Mary's  husband  out  of  the  way 
by  murdering  him  (thus  making  any  later  marriage  with  Mary  illegal). 
Then  he  was  divorced  from  his  wife  in  a  Protestant  court  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  an  adulterer.  But  since  he  was  not  the  innocent  party  in 
the  divorce,  the  Protestant  minister,  Mr.  Craig,  refused  to  marry  him 
to  the  Queen;  nor  would  a  Cathohc  priest  perform  the  marriage,  since 
that  church  did  not  allow  remarriage  after  such  a  divorce.  To  obviate 
this  predicament,  an  annulment  of  his  former  marriage  was  obtained 
from  a  Catholic  court,  especially  appointed  by  Mary,  on  the  ground  of 
alleged  affinity,  which  could  be  maintained  only  by  admitting  or  invent- 
ing a  former  ilhcit  connection  with  one  of  his  wife's  relatives.  After 
this,  a  bishop  was  found  to  perform  the  marriage  with  Mary.  Later, 
Bothwell's  divorced  wife  married  the  Earl  of  Sutherland. 

See  also  the  statement  of  Bunny,  p.  83,  below.  The  divorce  and  re- 
marriage of  Lady  Essex  (Frances  Howard)  is  another  case  in  point  here. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  65 

to  have  had  no  effect  whatever  at  any  time,  as  the  church 
was  able  to  escape  its  provisions  through  the  loophole  of 
*' God's  law  excepted."^  Edward  VI  showed  his  approval 
of  the  views  of  the  German  Reformers  by  bringing  Fagius 
and  Bucer  over  to  Cambridge  as  professors  of  Hebrew  and 
Divinity  respectively;  ^  but  his  beliefs,  whatever  they  were, 
took  no  more  active  form,  except  for  the  repealing  of  the 
above  law  of  Henry  VIII.  These  two  elements,  the  Romish 
practices  and  the  principles  of  the  German  Reformation, 
continued  as  the  grounds  of  contention  in  matrimonial 
affairs  throughout  our  period,  and  indeed,  they  continue 
to  the  present  day.  The  followers  of  the  Catholic  Church 
as  well  as  those  Protestants  who  clung  to  prelatical  epis- 
copacy, upheld  the  Roman  practices;  whereas  the  Puritans 
and  the  various  sects  which  split  off  from  them,  not  only 
upheld  the  principles  of  the  German  Reformers,  particularly 
in  their  platform  of  divorce  (with  remarriage  for  the  inno- 
cent party)  for  adultery  and  desertion,  but  also  opposed 
the  whole  Roman  theory  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in 
marital  affairs.  The  efforts  of  these  dissenting  sects,  how- 
ever, have  never  been  of  sufficient  weight  in  England  to 
overthrow  the  influence  of  Rome  except  momentarily,  and 
to  this  day  the  old  impediments,  the  narrowness  of  the 
grounds  for  divorce,  and  the  discrimination  against  the 
woman,  are  upheld  to  a  greater  extent  in  England  than  in 
any  other  Protestant  country. 

^  This  exception  was  perfectly  well  recognized  in  legal  circles.  Coke 
says  on  the  point:  "There  be  also  other  divorces  [beside  those  for  con- 
sanguinity and  affinity]  which  declare  the  marriage  to  be  void,  as 
divorce  causa  frigitatis,  where  the  party  hath  perpetuam  impoientiam  gen- 
erationis,  &c,  and  causa  metus,  sive  duritiae,  also  causa  impubertatis: 
these  njarriages  are  said  to  be  prohibited  by  God's  law,  otherwise  the 
statute  of  32H8  would  extend  to  them."    Institutes,  Pt.  II,  p.  687. 

2  Milton  is  mistaken  in  saying  {Prose  Works,  II,  72)  that  Fagius  was 
professor  of  Divinity. 


66  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

So  far  we  have  concerned  ourselves  only  with  legislation. 
Almost  as  important  is  the  jurisdiction  thereupon,  especially 
as  the  principles  of  separation,  divorce,  and  annulment, 
and  the  grounds  for  such  suits,  varied  greatly  among  the 
different  churches,  as  will  be  shown  more  fully  later  on. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  proper  and  usual  way  to 
conduct  any  divorce  proceedings  was  by  means  of  the  church 
courts,  of  which  there  were  five  recognized  grades:  (1) 
Archdeacon's,  held  by  an  archdeacon  or  his  representative; 
(2)  Consistory,  held  by  cathedral  officers,  the  bishop's 
chancellor  or  commissionary  acting  as  judge;  (3)  Court  of 
Arches,  at  London  and  York  only,  which  handled  appeals 
from  Consistory  courts;  (4)  Court  of  Delegates,  or  com- 
missioners appointed  by  the  sovereign,  which  handled 
appeals  from  the  Courts  of  Arches;  (5)  Court  of  High 
Commissions  for  "all  manner  of  jurisdiction,  privileges, 
and  preeminences  touching  any  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  within  the  realms  of  England  and  Ireland." 
Besides  these,  there  were  other  local  courts,  "some  of  them 
mere  shops  for  the  sale  of  'dispensations,  licenses,  faculties, 
and  other  remnants  of  the  papal  extortions.' "  ^  It  was  to 
these  "mere  shops"  that  people  of  meager  circumstances 
went  for  divorce.  Indeed,  from  the  repeated  references 
to  "the  minister,"  it  seems  as  if  questions  were  often  de- 
cided and  divorces  granted  by  the  parish  priest  alone.^ 
Certainly  among  the  Puritans,  if  their  cases  were  sub- 
mitted to  legal  jurisdiction  of  any  kind,  divorces  for  adultery 
or  desertion,  after  1603,  must  have  been  granted  by  a  single 
minister  or  some  sort  of  local  magistrate  or  informal  assembly, 
since  the  established  church  did  not  grant  divorces  on  these 
grounds.  Enough  has  been  said  elsewhere  to  show  the 
corruption  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts  in  periods  previous 
to  the  one  under  consideration   here  and  the   advantage 

1  Bacon,  p.  77. 

*  E.  g.,  see  quotation  from  Perkins,  p.  80,  n.  4,  below. 


THE  ATTEMPTED  REFOKM  OF  DIVORCE  67 

taken  of  these  conditions  by  those  who  could  afford  it 
financially.  That  this  state  of  affairs  had  not  improved 
is  abundantly  shown  by  contemporary  practices  and  com- 
ment. John  Cotton,  who  spoke  from  experience,  says,  "The 
ecclesiastical  courts  are  like  the  courts  of  the  high-priests 
and  Pharisees,  which  Solomon,  by  a  spirit  of  prophesy, 
styleth,  dens  of  lions,  and  mountains  of  leopards.  Those 
who  have  had  to  do  with  them  have  found  them  to  be 
markets  of  the  sins  of  the  people,  the  cages  of  unclean- 
ness,  the  forgers  of  extortion,  the  tabernacles  of  bribery, 
and  contrary  to  the  end  of  civil  government."  ^ 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts  in  divorce 
affairs,  as  has  been  shown,  was  of  early  origin,  but  with  the 
coming  of  the  Reformation  and  the  conception  of  marriage 
as  a  civil  affair  and  not  a  sacrament,  we  find  a  new  concep- 
tion of  divorce  arising  also.  This  is  that  marriage  is  dis- 
solved ipso  facto,  without  any  jurisdiction  whatever,  by  the 
mere  existence  of  causes  recognized  as  proper  grounds  for 
its  dissolution.  The  case  here,  as  investigated  up  to  date, 
is  stated  by  Howard  as  follows: 

"The  researches  of  Stolzel  have  clearly  established  that  in  the 
beginning  the  reformers  returned  to  the  principle  of  self-divorce 
prevailing  among  the  ancient  Romans  and  Hebrews,  and  accepted 
by  some  of  the  early  church  councils.  .  .  .  When  an  adequate 
cause  exists,  a  marriage  is  thereby  dissolved  in  favor  of  the  innocent 
person  without  any  magisterial  authority  whatsoever.  If  in  cer- 
tain cases,  in  order  to  establish  the  existence  of  the  grounds  of  dis- 
solution, any  action  is  needful,  it  is  regarded  as  extra-judicial;  and 
when  gradually  such  informal  proceedings  have  grown  into  an 
orderly  process  dealing  directly  with  the  question  of  divorce,  this 
process  concludes  with  a  decree;  not  that  the  marriage  is  thereby 
dissolved,  but  that  it  has  already  been  dissolved  in  consequence  of 
the  grounds  now  established.  .  .  .  Luther  and  other  Protestant 

1  Brook,  III,  155. 


68  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

leaders  accepted  the  theory  just  explained  that  a  marriage  is 
*  broken'  or  dissolved  when  a  proper  cause  intervenes;  and  if  without 
exception  they  insisted  that  the  married  persons  should  not  separate 
themselves,  but  appeal  to  pubUc  authority,  they  had  in  mind,  as 
Luther  plainly  shows,  the  estabUshment  of  the  fact  of  wedlock 
already  broken  in  order,  where  it  was  desired,  to  grant  the 
permission  of  marrying  again."  ^ 

Although  this  conception  of  the  possibility  and  practice 
of  private  divorce,  followed  by  civil  sanction,  after  something 
the  same  manner  as  the  Hebrew  practice,  seems  to  be 
generally  admitted  as  having  existed  to  some  extent  in  Ger- 
many, no  one  has  as  yet  traced  its  course  in  England. 
Whether  the  similar  condition,  which  actually  did  exist 
in  England,  took  its  source  from  the  German  Reformation, 
or  whether  private  divorce  had  continued  unbrokenly  in 
some  measure  from  early  times  down,  which  seems  unlikely, 
is  hardly  worth  debating  here.  At  any  rate,  we  find  exactly 
the  same  attitude  existing  in  England  as  that  just  described 
of  Germany.  Hooper,  after  speaking  of  the  causes  of  divorce, 
says,  ''The  persons  may  by  the  authority  of  God's  word  and 
the  ministry  of  the  magistrates  ^  be  separated."  ^  Whately 
in  the  beginning  of  the  next  century  says,  ''Now  if  it  shall 
fall  out,  that  either  of  the  married  persons  shall  frowardly 
and  peruersely  withdraw  themselves  from  this  matrimoniall 
societie  (which  fault  is  termed  desertion),  the  person  thus 

^  Howard,  II,  69.  There  is  a  reference  to  this  practice  of  self-divorce 
in  Bullinger's  Christen  state  of  Matrimonye,  f.  Ixxvii,  which  by  urging 
a  regular  proceeding  upon  the  persons  concerned,  supports  Howard's 
remarks.  "Though  they  be  persuaded  to  haue  lawfull  occasions  of 
divorcemet/  yet  they  may  not  be  iudges  in  their  awne  causes/  nor 
take  ought  here  in  had  by  their  awne  authoryte/  but  let  their  matter 
come  before  their  ordinate  Judge." 

*  The  word  magistrates  always  refers  to  civil  rather  than  ecclesiasti- 
cal officers. 

'  Hooper,  Early  Writings,  p.  379. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  b^ 

offending,  hath  so  farre  violated  the  couenant  of  marriage, 
that  .  .  .  the  bond  of  matrimony  is  dissolued,  and  the 
other  party  so  truly  and  totally  loosed  from  it,  that  (after 
an  orderly  proceeding  with  the  Church  and  Magistrate  in 
that  behalf)  it  shall  be  no  sinne  for  him  or  her  to  make  a  / 
new  contract  with  another  person.''  ^ 

The  decree  granted  by  the  civil  or  ecclesiastical  court  to 
permit  the  second  marriage,  had  the  effect,  unintentional 
or  not,  of  granting  the  previous  divorce;  so  that  to  this 
extent  any  such  private  divorce  differed  from  the  old  He- 
brew practice.  There  is,  nevertheless,  evidence  that  the 
ancient  practice  of  private  divorce  existed  during  our  whole 
period,  especially  among  the  Independents.^  Becon,  in  his 
Homily  against  Whoredom,  has  this  passage:  "Of  this  vice 
cometh  a  great  part  of  the  divorces,  which  now-a-days  be 
so  commonly  accustomed  and  used  by  men's  private  author- 
ity, to  the  .  .  .  breach  of  the  .  .  .  bond  of  matrimony."  ^ 
In  1552,  the  use  of  such  private  divorce  was  deemed  to  be 
of  sufficient  prevalence  to  warrant  its  being  mentioned  and 
condemned  in  the  Reformatio  Legum.  John  Kjiox  reports 
a  private  divorce  with  remarriage  in  Scotland  in  1560, 
which  though  opposed  by  the  magistrates  was  upheld  by 

1  Whately,  Bride-bush,  p.  25.  See  also  the  doctrine  of  the  Puritans 
as  drawn  by  their  assembly,  p.  88,  below. 

2  This  practice  among  the  Independents  has  been  hinted  at  before, 
but  never  has  any  real  evidence  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  subject 
by  either  historian  or  legal  writer.  Inderwick  comes  the  nearest  of 
any  to  making  a  definite  statement,  in  saying,  "The  Jewish  law,  to 
which  they  much  adhered,  provided  for  and  regulated  divorces."  (The 
Interregnum,  p.  46.)  It  is  well  known  that  the  Jews  in  England  con- 
tinued their  old  practice  of  private  divorce.  Their  laxity  in  this  respect, 
says  Inderwick,  "was found  in  1655  to  be  one  of  the  strongest  arguments 
against  their  proposed  admission  to  the  rights  of  citizenship."  (Ibid.) 

^  Becon,  op.  cit.  (pub.  in  Catechism,  etc.  by  Parker  So.),  p.  647.  This 
homily  was  included  in  the  official  book  of  homilies  published  by 
authority  in  1547. 


70  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

public  opinion.^  At  the  other  end  of  our  period,  John 
Paget,  writing  to  Ainsworth,  a  leader  of  some  of  the  Inde- 
pendent churches,  objects  to  the  practice  of  that  sect  ''that 
you  also  allow  Divorces  among  yourselves,  without  author- 
ity of  the  magistrates."  ^  At  about  the  same  time,  Bur- 
roughes,  in  his  lectures  on  Hosea,  refers  to  the  custom  as 
then  current:  "It  is  true  when  a  man  putts  away  his  wife 
for  whoredom  and  giveth  her  a  bill  of  divorce,  he  will  never 
take  her  again."  ^  Milton  not  only  recognizes  the  practice 
but  even  makes  the  defense  of  it  one  of  the  principal  points 
in  his  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce.*  Finally,  Baillie, 
in  1645,  commenting  upon  the  Brownists,  says,  ''As  their 
mariage  is  private,  so  hkewise  must  their  Divorces,  without 
cognizance  either  of  Magistrate  or  Minister";  and  of  the 
Independents,  he  says,  "Concerning  Divorces,  some  of 
them  goe  farre  beyond  any  of  the  Brownists:  not  to  speak 
of  Mr.  Milton,  ...  for  I  doe  not  know  certainely  whether 
this  man  professeth  Independency  (albeit  all  the  Heretics 
here,  whereof  ever  I  heard,  avow  themselves  Independ- 
ents)."^ Scattered  as  this  evidence  may  seem,  it  is  quite 
sufficient  to  estabhsh  the  fact  that  divorce  by  private  author- 
ity, without  recourse  to  either  magistrate  or  ecclesiastic, 
was  practised  throughout  the  whole  of  the  period  we  are 
studying. 

II.  The  Puritan- Anglican  Controversy  on 
Divorce 

The  controversy  between  the  Puritans  and  the  Church 
of  England  in  regard  to  divorce,  from  the  time  of  the  Ref- 
ormation to  CromwelFs  civil  marriage  act,  ran  somewhat 

*  Knox,  History  of  Reformation  in  Scotland,  p.  241. 
«  Hanbury,  I,  333. 

*  Burroughes,  Exposition  of  Hosea,  p.  228. 

*  See  below,  pp.  96-97. 

^  Baillie,    Dissvasive,  p.  116;  also  in  Hanbury,  III,  146. 


THE   ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  71 

the  same  course  as  did  that  over  the  celebration  of  marriage, 
with  which  it  is  more  or  less  comiected.  The  controversy 
over  the  divorce  of  Henry  VIII,  which  began  in  1527,  was  the 
chief  factor  in  precipitating  the  whole  question;  but  as 
divorce  matters  had  already  been  the  subject  of  much  dis- 
cussion and  some  legislation  among  the  Reformers  in  Ger- 
many, the  King's  affair  can  not  be  regarded  as  the  entire 
cause  of  the  dispute  in  England.  Nevertheless,  it  brought 
to  a  head  an  illness  of  the  church  and  state  which  otherwise 
might  have  increased  and  spread  for  some  years  to  come. 
Yet  the  attention  directed  to  the  question  at  this  time  was, 
after  all,  but  momentary,  and  after  the  immediate  issue  had 
been  settled  to  the  King's  advantage,  —  if  to  no  one  else's 
—  and  he  himself  had  made  a  desultory  attempt  to  better 
conditions  by  means  of  the  act  of  1540,  excitement  died 
down  and  the  first  chapter  of  the  controversy  was  over. 

How  far  this  chapter  was  a  cause  of  the  second  and  in 
many  ways  more  important  one,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  After 
the  King's  death,  writing  on  the  subject  became  directed 
more  to  the  general  field  of  divorce  matters  and  less  to  the 
specific  case  of  Henry  and  Catherine.  One  finds  occasional 
references  in  the  later  books  to  the  royal  affair,  but  they 
are  too  few  to  argue  from.^  The  most  we  can  say,  perhaps, 
is  that  the  King's  case,  by  bringing  the  subject  into  public 
discussion,  stimulated  thought  and  controversy  upon  it, 
which  in  the  wider  issue  uncovered,  soon  lost  sight  of  the 
particular  instance.  In  this  development  we  find  no  books 
on  divorce  alone  until  the  question  of  remarriage  arose, 
along  towards  1600.^  What  expression  there  was,  is  to  be 
found  in  books  on  domestic  life,  in  tracts  on  the  doctrine  and 
government  of  the  church,  and  in  the  Parliamentary  debates 
on  the  subject  of  the  reform  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 
The  domestic  books  cannot  be  said  to  be  written  in  the  spirit 
of  controversy;    they  are  rather  merely  the  expression  of 

^  E.  g.,  see  below,  p.  114,  n.  1. 

*  See  below,  p.  81  ff. 


1 


72  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

individual  standards  and  opinions,  without  much  consid- 
eration of  what  any  one  else  thought  on  the  subject.  On 
the  whole,  all  the  writers  of  these  books  advocate  much 
the  same  principles,  with  one  important  exception.  This 
is  the  stand  made  by  the  Puritans  for  divorce  after  the 
maimer  of  the  German  Reformers,  with  permission  for  the 
offended  person  to  remarry,  instead  of  the  separation  a 
mensa  et  thoro^  which  continued  to  be  maintained  by  the 
Church  of  England. 

The  views  of  the  Church  of  England  differed  in  no  way 
in  regard  to  divorce  affairs  from  those  of  the  Church  of 
Rome;  for,  as  Fuller  said,  the  secession  of  the  former  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  latter  "touched  not  the  least  finger 
of  Popery."  These  views  had  already  been  set  forth,  for 
the  first  time  in  English,  before  Henry  VIII 's  marital 
troubles  existed  outside  of  what  he  was  pleased  to  call  his 
conscience;  and  as  they  remained  the  accepted  principles 
of  the  Church  of  England,  it  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  state 
them  briefly  once  again  as  put  forth  in  this  book,  the  Co- 
mendacious  of  matrymony,  by  WiUiam  Harrington,  in  1528.^ 
For  divorce,  he  says,  there  is  but  one  cause :  if  before  carnalis 
copula  one  of  the  married  persons  goes  over  to  a  heretical 
religion  and  will  not  return.  Separation  is  admitted  if 
one  of  the  couple  is  adulterous.  The  impediments  to  mar- 
riage are  given  in  full  by  Harrington,  and  here  we  find  the 
same  confusion  that  we  noted  above  between  those  which 
impede  marriage  but  do  not  annul  it  and  those  which  render 
it  absolutely  null  and  void  ab  initio,  some  of  the  causes 
being  included  in  both  lists.  ^ 

^  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  interpretation  of  these  principles 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  on  account  of  the  cor- 
ruption therein,  the  application  of  them  was  by  no  means  consistent. 

2  See  above,  p.  8  ff.  and  notes.  Harrington's  book  is  the  only  one  in 
English,  either  original  or  translation,  that  gives  a  list  of  impediments 
in  anything  like  complete  form.    Although  the  most  important  book  of 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OP  DIVORCE  73 

In  Protestant  writings,  we  find  less  discussion  of  the  annul- 
ment of  marriage  through  impediments  and  more  attention 
to  the  granting  of  divorce  for  adultery,  desertion,  and  other 
causes.    Bullinger,  in  his  book  The  Christen  state  of  Matri- 

all  that  I  have  seen,  so  far  as  definite  information  is  concerned  (giving 
more  than  all  others  put  together),  it  seems  to  have  been  completely- 
overlooked  by  all  previous  investigators,  both  legal  and  otherwise.  The 
impediments,  as  here  given,  are  worth  quoting.  They  may  be  sum- 
marized: 

I.   Impediments  preventing  marriage,  but  not  annulling  it  if  already- 
made: 

1.  Forbidden  seasons  of  the  year. 

2.  Inhibition  or  prohibition  by  the  church. 
"3.   Precontract. 

4.  Vow  of  chastity,  previously  made  by  either  party. 

5.  Incest  {i.e.  adultery  with  any  of  betrothed's  relations  within 
four  degrees). 

6.  Murder  (committed  in  order  to  marry  a  certain  person  impedes 
such  marriage). 

7.  Ravishment  of  another's  wife. 

8.  Christening  one's  own  child  (impedes  any  second  marriage). 

9.  The  murder  of  a  priest. 

10.  A  solemn  penance  previously  undergone. 

11.  The  woman's  being  a  nun. 

Impediments  preventing  marriage  and  annulling  it  if  made: 

1.  Wrong  person  (i.e.  through  mistaken  identity,  trickery,  etc.) 

2.  An  existing  marriage  on  the  part  of  either. 

3.  Solemn  vow  of  chastity  previously  made. 

4.  Cognition: 

a.  Carnal  (i.e.  consanguinity  or  affinity  within  four  degrees). 

b.  Contract  or  carnal  knowledge  (preventing  marriage  with 
any  one  within  four  degrees  of  the  other  party  involved). 

c.  Spiritual  (existing  between  persons  joined  by  common  par- 
ticipation in  the  baptism  or  confirmation  of  a  child  and  also 
between  the  children  of  the  same). 

5.  Adultery  (preventing  subsequent  marriage  with  party  involved). 

6.  Murder  (as  in  above  list). 


74  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

monye,  confines  his  remarks  on  the  impediments  to  a  treat- 
ment of  the  degrees  of  consanguinity  and  affinity,  and 
discusses  divorce  in  an  entirely  different  part  of  the  work. 
Here  the  Reformation  ideas  are  advocated  in  liberal  form, 
divorce  being  allowed  for  whoredom,  adultery,  murder,  and 
poisonings.  The  author  further  remarks,  "They  therfore 
that  in  no  case  wyll  helpe  the  oppressed  persone  /  ner  in 
anye  wyse  permytte  diuorce  to  be  made  /  do  euen  as  the 
Pharisies  /  whych  by  reason  of  [following]  the  command- 
ment of  the  Sabboth  after  the  lettre  /  suffred  men  to  be 
destroyed  and  to  peryshe."  ^ 

Bishop  Hooper,  the  first  real  Puritan  to  express  himself 
on  the  subject,  in  his  Declaration  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, 1550,  follows  the  German  ideas  in  allowing  divorce 

/  for  adultery,  and  goes  a  step  further  than  his  English  con- 
temporaries in  putting  the  man  and  the  woman  on  the  same 
footing  in  all  matrimonial  matters.^  In  the  latter  attitude 
he  was  supported  by  the  committee  which  drew  up  the 
Reformatio  Legum  and  later  by  some  of  the  more  important 

^Puritan  writers,  Perkins,  Whately,  and  Milton  for  example. 
But  at  the  time,  there  was  no  agreement  on  this  topic,  and 
Hooper's  opinions  had  evidently  met  with  strong  opposition 

7.  Difference  of  religion  (no  marriage  to  be  made  with  Jew,  Turk, 
Saracen,  or  such  other). 

8.  The  man's  being  a  priest. 

9.  Impotency  )  But  if  either  of  these  develop  after  the  marriage, 
10.   Madness      )      "there  is  no  remedy." 

Interesting  points  to  be  noted  about  these  lists  are:  (1)  Impedi- 
ments 4,  5,  and  6  of  the  first  list  occur  again  as  3,  46,  and  6  of  the  sec- 
ond. (2)  Precontract,  which  according  to  all  other  authorities  annulled 
marriage  (unless  defuturo  only),  does  not  occur  in  the  second  list.  Har- 
rington is  certainly  wrong  here.  (3)  If  4,  5,  and  6  of  list  two  had  been 
strictly  observed  during  the  following  century,  many  of  the  plots  of  the 
drama  of  the  time  would  have  been  knocked  on  the  head  at  the  outset. 

1  Bullinger,  op.  dt.,  f.  Ixxvii  6. 

2  Hooper,  Early  Writings,  cap.  X. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   KEFORM  OF  DIVORCE  75 

from  his  associates,  since  he  takes  particular  pains  to  refute 
their  arguments  and  justify  his  own  position.  His  treatise, 
bring  a  part  of  his  discussion  of  the  seventh  commandment, 
does  not  touch  upon  other  causes  for  divorce,  although  it 
seems  to  suggest  that  such  exist,  and  makes  no  mention 
of  the  impediments.  Becon,  writing  in  about  1562,  says  , 
that  Christians  may  put  away  their  wives  for  no  fault  either 
of  body  or  mind  '' adultery  only  excepted."  ^  He  does  not 
discuss  the  impediments  at  all,  but  attacks  the  English 
Church  at  length  for  not  allowing  remarriage  after  separa- 
tion. After  quoting  many  of  the  church  fathers  on  this 
point,  he  reviews  carefully  the  opinions  of  the  writers  shortly 
before  him,  considering  in  some  detail  those  of  Erasmus, 
Luther,  Bucer,  Melancthon,  Bullinger,  Peter  Martyr  (''that 
precious  pearl  and  maruelous  marguerite"),  Musculus, 
Calvin,  Sacarius,  and  Brentinus,  all  of  whom  agree  in  allow- 
ing the  innocent  party  to  remarry.  Puritan  expression  after 
this  allows  divorce  (with  remarriage  of  the  innocent  party) 
consistently  for  adultery,  usually  for  desertion,  and  sometimes 
for  the  other  causes  originated  by  Luther.  Henry  Smith, 
in  1591,  is  perhaps  the  least  lenient  of  them  all,  declaring  u 
bluntly,  ''The  disease  of  marriage  is  adultery,  and  the  medi-  \ 
cine  heerof  is  Diuorcement."  He  continues:  "If  they  might 
be  seperated  for  discord,  some  would  make  a  comodotie 
of  strife;  but  nowe  they  are  not  best  to  be  contentius,  for 
this  Law  will  holde  their  noses  together,  til  wearines  make 
them  leaue  strugling,  like  two  spaniels  which  are  coupled 
in  a  chain,  at  last  they  learne  to  goe  together,  because  they 
may  not  goe  a  sunder."  ^ 

Meanwhile  the  established  church  was  holding  fast  to  its 

^  Becon,  Boke  of  Matrimony,  Worckes,  Pt.  I,  f .  DCxxviii. 

2  Smith,  A  Preparative  to  Mariage,  -pp.  90-91.  Smith  is  known 
to  have  inclined  strongly  towards  orthodoxy,  but  he  was  opposed  to  at- 
tempting to  force  it  upon  others. 


76  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

old  principles  and  practices  under  the  favor  of  Elizabeth 
and  the  protection  of  the  High  Commission  Court.  Di- 
vorce with  permission  to  remarry  was  still  refused,  although 
in  actual  practice  little  attention  was  paid  to  this  prohibi- 
tion once  a  separation  was  obtained.^  The  church  courts, 
nominally  under  the  power  of  the  statute  law  but  in  reality 
subservient  only  to  the  High  Commission  Court,  which  was 
controlled  by  Whitgift,  continued  to  annul  marriage  on 
the  ground  of  impediments,  real  or  fictitious,  and  to  grant 
separations  a  mensa  et  thoro,  which  were  quickly  put  into 
practice  by  the  plaintiffs  as  actual  divorces.  In  this  condi- 
f^  tion  of  affairs,  it  became  apparent  to  the  Puritans  that  as 
long  as  the  church  courts  existed  in  their  present  status, 
there  could  be  no  reform  in  the  administration  not  only  of 
divorce  matters  but  of  tythes,  wills,  and  marriage  contracts 
as  well,  all  of  which  were  being  discussed  equally  with 
divorce.  Thus  it  was  that  from  this  time  on,  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  Puritans  was  directed  more  towards  the  funda- 
mental evil  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  than  towards  any 
one  of  the  interests  that  suffered  therefrom. 

We  have  already  seen  that  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the 
century  prelatical  episcopacy  had  been  attacked  by  Hooper 
and  Bucer,  and  that  the  Puritan  ideas  for  church  govern- 
ment were  given  final  and  definite  form  by  the  assembly 
of  divines  in  1576.^  Here  we  find  the  first  platform  for 
divorce  proceedings,  in  the  provision  that  the  local  classes 
should  decide  "doubts  and  difficulties  touching  the  contract 
of  marriage."  This  seems  to  be  the  only  definite  statement 
—  and  it  is  far  enough  from  being  satisfactory  —  as  to  the 
intended  jurisdiction  in  matrimonial  affairs. 

In  1582,  Robert  Brown  reopened  the  agitation  in  his 
book  The  life  and  manners  of  true  Christians,  by  upholding 
the  civil  magistrates  over  the  prelates;  and  by  means  of 
his  writing  and  preaching  started  the  Independents'  move- 

^  See  below,  pp.  83,  87,  n.  1. 
»  See  above,  p.  29  ff. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF  DIVORCE  77 

ment  against  all  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in  matrimonial 
as  well  as  other  affairs.^  Of  the  church  under  the  control 
of  the  bishops,  he  says: 

"0,  churche  without  eyes.  For  thy  light  is  shutt  vp  at  the  Bish- 
ops Beneplacitu.  Art  thou  the  church  of  Christe,  when  thy  starres 
be  not  in  his  hande,  but  the  fystes  of  thy  Bishoppes  doo  pull  them 
downe  from  thee?  Yet  is  this  church  of  Englande  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  trueth.  For  the  Bishops  overryde  it.  They  are  the  trueth 
and  it  is  the  ground.  It  is  the  Beast  and  they  are  the  Ryders.  It 
stoupeth  as  an  Asse  for  them  to  get  vp.  The  whippe  of  their 
spirituall  Courtes,  and  the  Spurres  of  their  lawes,  and  the  Bridle 
of  their  power,  do  make  it  carie  them." » 

In  the  third  section  of  the  book.  Brown  describes  the  proper 
government  by  church  and  state.  ''Church  gouenors  are 
persons  receyuing  their  authoritie  &  office  of  God,  for  the 
guiding  of  his  people  the  church,  receyued  and  called  thereto, 
by  due  consent  and  agreement  of  the  Church."  Continu- 
ing, he  says,  "Ciuill  Magistrates  are  persons  authorised  of 
God,  and  receyued  by  the  consent  or  choyse  of  the  people, 
whether  officers  or  subiectes,  or  by  birth  &  succession  also, 
to  make  and  execute  lawes  by  publick  agreement,  to  rule 
the  common  wealth  in  all  outwarde  iustice,  &  to  maintaine 
the  right,  welfare,  &  honour  thereof,  with  outwarde  power, 
bodily  punishmens,  and  ciuill  forcing  of  men."    The  bishops, 

*  In  the  preface  of  Brown's  book,  there  is  an  extended  and  confused 
discussion  of  pastors,  bishops,  and  magistrates,  under  the  title  Of 
Reformation  mthout  tarying  for  anie.  In  this,  bishops  and  magistrates 
are  classed  together,  as  if  both  were  opposed  to  reforms,  but  this  is 
merely  the  result  of  Brown's  impatience  at  the  failure  of  Parliament, 
fettered  by  the  multipUcity  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  to  move  as  rapidly 
as  he  desired.  The  treatise  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  confusion 
in  popular  minds  of  the  authority  of  the  parish  priests,  the  civil  magis- 
trates, and  the  bishops'  courts. 

*  Brown,  An  Order  for  Studying  the  Scriptures  (contained  in  The  life 
and  manners),  f.  G3  b. 


78  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

whom  he  calls  heathen,  he  says,  ''shift  and  thrust  them- 
selves into  Church  gouernment  as  Antichristes  .  .  .  [and] 
.  .  .  into  ciuil  gouernment  as  Tyrantes/'  ^ 

Whether  Cartwright  took  his  ideas  on  the  judgment  of 
matrimonial  causes  from  Brown  or  held  similar  ones  pre- 
viously, we  cannot  say;  but  in  his  Reply  to  the  Answer,  in 
c.  1573,^  he  puts  Brown^s  general  principles  concerning  the 
power  of  the  temporal  magistrates  as  to  marriage  and 
divorce  legislation  into  definite  expression.     He  says: 

"Another  thing  is  that  in  these  courts  (which  they  call  spiritual) 
they  take  the  knowledge  of  matters  which  are  mere  civil,  thereby 
not  only  perverting  the  order  which  God  hath  appointed  in  severing 
the  civil  causes  from  the  ecclesiastical,  but  justling  also  with  the 
civil  magistrate,  and  thrusting  him  from  the  jurisdiction  which 
appertaineth  unto  him,  as  the  causes  of  the  contracts  of  marriage, 
of  divorces,  of  wills  and  testaments,  with  divers  other  such  like 
things.  For,  although  it  appertain  to  the  church  and  govenors 
thereof  to  shew  out  of  the  word  of  God  which  is  a  lawful  contract 
or  just  cause  of  divorce,  and  so  forth,  yet  the  judicial  determination 
and  definitive  sentences  of  all  these  do  appertain  unto  the  civil 
magistrate."  ' 

Whitgift  replied  to  this  that  there  was  no  distinction  between 
the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  since  both  were 
executed  by  the  Queen  and  emanated  from  her  supreme 
power.  This  statement  exhibits  the  true  state  of  affairs, 
in  which  the  church  hid  the  scandal  of  its  courts  behind 
Elizabeth's  skirts  and  took  refuge  in  the  favor  she  showed 
Whitgift  and  the  prelates. 

1  Brown,  Life  and  manners,  art.  117. 

'  In  1572,  Cartwright  wrote  an  Admonition  to  Parliament,  in  which  he 
objected  to  some  of  the  details  of  the  marriage  ceremony.  Whitgift's 
Answer  to  the  Admonition  led  Cartwright  to  go  into  the  subject  more 
fully,  as  above. 

«  Cartwright,  see  Whitgift,  W(yrks,  III,  267. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF  DIVORCE  79 

In  the  last  decade  of  the  century,  there  was  any  amount 
of  pamphlet  writing  on  the  different  religious  questions  of 
the  day.  Of  all  this,  the  Marprelate  tracts  have  become 
the  best  known  on  account  of  their  humorous  and  semi- 
literary  character,  which  assured  them  a  large  number  of 
readers;  but  there  were  also  a  great  many  less  known  books 
and  tracts  of  the  period  by  such  men  as  Barrow,  Perkins, 
Studley,  Pye,  Bradshaw,  and  others,  who  were  opposed  by 
an  equal  number  on  the  bishops'  side,  the  most  important 
of  whom  was  the  great  Hooker.  By  this  time,  the  debate 
between  Puritanism  and  the  established  church  embraced 
the  three  large  subjects  of  cermonials,  doctrines,  and  church 
government;  so  that  among  so  many  disputed  principles 
and  practices,  we  find  little  reference  to  our  particular  sub- 
ject. Hooker's  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity  is  the  most 
exhaustive  work  in  the  whole  period,  but  in  continuing  the 
Whitgift-Cartwright  controversy  on  church  government 
and  jurisdiction,  the  writer  uses  such  general  arguments 
and  illustrations  that  we  get  no  further  definite  information 
on  actual  practices.  Divorce  is  not  mentioned  at  all,  it 
being  a  detail  too  small  to  be  considered,  according  to  the 
scheme  of  the  book. 

There  was,  however,  one  important  work  which  is  val- 
uable in  giving  concrete  expression  to  much  that  was  in  the 
air.  This  is  the  Christian  Oeconomie  of  William  Perkins,  a 
writer  mentioned  by  Milton  in  his  first  divorce  tract.  The 
book  was  originally  written  in  Latin  in  1590  and  was  trans- 
lated into  EngHsh  by  Thomas  Pickering  in  1609.  On  the 
question  of  the  nullification  of  marriage  through  some  pre- 
viously existing  impediment,  Perkins  gives  us  more  informa- 
tion than  does  any  other  Puritan  writer.  It  is  evident  from 
what  he  says  that  the  usual  impediments  were  still  in  opera- 
tion, and,  in  theory  at  least,  were  not  opposed  by  the  Re- 
formed churches.     In  regard  to  divorce,  he  disagrees  with 


80  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

the  old  Catholic  principle  that  allowed  it  in  the  case  of  a 
man's  entering  holy  orders/  but  on  the  other  hand,  upholds 
in  their  broadest  form  the  general  Puritan  grounds  for  grant- 
ing it.  These  may  be  divided  into  four  classes:  (1)  deser- 
tion, "when  one  of  the  married  folkes,  vpon  a  wilfull,  and 
obstinate  mind  of  their  owne  head,  departeth  from  the  other, 
without  a  iust,  and  necessary  cause";  (2)  malicious  deal- 
ing, "when  dwelling  together,  they  require  of  each  other 
intolerable  conditions";  (3)  long  absence,  opinions  differ- 
ing as  to  the  extent  of  time;  (4)  adultery .^  In  all  cases, 
according  to  Perkins,  there  should  be  no  discrimination  of 
sex.  "Now  in  requiring  of  a  diuorce,"  he  says,  "there  is 
an  equall  right  and  power  in  both  parties,  so  as  the  woman 
may  require  it  as  well  as  the  man.  .  .  .  The  reason  is, 
because  they  are  equally  bound  each  to  other,  .  .  .  prouided 
alwaie,  that  the  man  is  to  maintaine  his  superioritie,  and 
the  woman  to  obserue  that  modestie  which  beseemeth  her 
towards  the  man."  ^  In  regard  to  the  relations  of  church  and 
state  in  causes  matrimonial,  it  seems  as  if  either  authority 
could  use  disciplinary  measures,  that  the  church  granted 
divorce,  and  that  either  church  or  magistrate  might  grant 
permission  to  remarry;  but  the  discussion  of  these  points 
is  not  full  enough  to  show  clearly  either  the  practices  of  the 
day  or  the  writer's  views  upon  them.* 

For  a  treatment  of  the  Puritan  attitude  of  this  time  in 

1  This  was  the  logical  outcome  of  the  Puritan  principle  that  a  min- 
ister was  in  no  way  forbidden  to  marry,  which  was  directly  opposed  to 
the  orthodox  doctrine. 

»  Perkins,  op.  cit.,  p.  101  ff. 

»  Ihid.,  p.  120. 

*  After  discussing  the  case  of  desertion  {ibid.,  p.  105),  he  says: 
"After  publike  and  solemne  declaration  made,  the  Minister  vpon  such 
desertion,  may  pronounce  the  mariage  to  be  dissolued." 


THE   ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  81 

regard  to  church  and  state  rights,  we  may  turn  to  William 
Bradshaw's  English  Puritanisme,  published  in  1605.  What 
he  says  here  needs  no  comment.  I  quote  only  the  most 
significant  passages: 

"All  Ecclesiasticall  actions  invented  &  deuised  by  man,  are 
vtterlie  to  bee  excluded  out  of  the  exercises  of  religion." 

"No  Pastor  ought  to  exercise  or  accept  any  Civill  pubUque 
lurisdictio  &  authoritie,  but  ought  to  be  wholly  imployed  in  spirit- 
ual! Offices  &  duties  .  .  .  And  that  those  Civill  Magistrats 
weake  their  owne  Supremacy  that  shall  suffer  any  Ecclesiasticall 
Pastor  to  exercise  any  civill  lurisdictio  within  their  Realmes, 
Dominios,  or  Seigniories." 

"The  spirituall  keyes  of  the  Church  ...  are  not  to  be  put  to 
this  vse,  to  lock  vp  the  Crownes,  Swords  or  Scepters,  of  Princes  & 
ciuill  States,  or  the  ciuill  Rightes  prerogatiues  and  immvnities, 
of  ciuill  subiects  in  the  things  of  this  Life." 

"The  Civill  Magistrate  .  .  .  hath  and  ought  to  haue  Supreae 
power  over  all  the  Churches  within  his  Dominions,  in  all  causes 
whatsoever."  ^ 

On  the  smaller  question  of  divorce  itself,  the  opposing 
parties  came  to  blows,  so  to  speak,  in  the  last  decade  of  the 
century.  Since  the  Puritans  admitted  the  validity  of  the 
old  impediments,  with  certain  modifications,  the  question 
of  marriage  after  divorce  —  that  is  whether  the  separation 
should  be  merely  a  mensa  et  thoro  or  divorce  in  the  modern 
sense  of  the  term  —  now  became  the  chief  ground  of  debate. 
The  ensuing  controversy  found  expression  in  the  more 
general  marriage  books,  as  already  mentioned,  and  in  ser- 
mons, as  is  shown  by  those  of  Bunny  and  Dove;  ^  but  does 

1  Bradshaw,  op.  ciL,  pp.  1,  17,  25,  32,  respectively.  A  full  synopsis 
of  this  book  is  given  in  Neal,  II,  55  ff. 

^  Bunny,  in  the  preface  to  Of  Divorce,  written  in  1595,  mentions 
three  sermons  in  which  he  opposed  remarriage  after  divorce.  Dove, 
in  a  sermon  preached  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  in  1601  and  published  the 
same  year  under  the  title  Of  Divorcement,  takes  a  similar  attitude. 


82  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

not  seem  to  have  been  a  field  for  special  writing  in  England, 
despite  the  books  of  Bucer  and  Beza/  until  Cardinal  Bel- 
larmino  of  Capua  reopened  the  subject  by  a  Latin  pamphlet 
upholding  the  old  Catholic  attitude.^  In  1597,  John  Rai- 
nolds,  in  his  Defense  of  the  Reformed  Churches,  etc.,  replied  in 
English  both  to  Bellarmino's  treatise  and  to  "an  English 
pamphlet  of  nameless  author.'^  This  work  was  not  pub- 
lished, however,  until  1609,  after  the  writer's  death,  because 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  'thought  it  not  meet  to  be 
printed,  as  containing  dangerous  doctrine,  and  breeding 
sundrie  inconveniences,  if  any  weary  of  wife  or  husband 
might,  by  committing  adulterie  procure  freedome  of  mary- 
ing  whom  they  list."  ^  The  ''nameless  author"  mentioned 
by  Rainolds  may  have  been  John  Howson,  who  published 
a  ''third  treatise"  in  1602,  entitled  Uxore  dismissa  propter 
Fornicationem  aliam  non  licet  superinducere.*  This  was 
answered  by  Thomas  Pye  first  in  English  and  then  in  Latin 
in  1603.^  Howson's  treatise  was  republished  in  1606  to- 
gether with  an  anonymous  Tractatus  modestus  et  Christianus 
in  defense  of  Howson  contra  reprehensiones  T.  Pyi.^    In 

*  Bucer,  De  Regno  Christi,  1557;  Beza,  Tractatio  de  repudiis  et  divor- 
tiis,  1569. 

2  I  have  not  been  able  to  locate  this  tract  nor  to  discover  any  further 
information  concerning  it.    It  is  merely  mentioned  by  Rainolds. 
'  From  the  letter  to  Pye  (see  below,  n.  6). 

*  On  the  other  hand,  were  Howson  the  "nameless  author,"  we 
should  expect  Rainolds'  tract  to  have  been  written  in  Latin,  since 
Howson's  was,  instead  of  in  EngUsh. 

6  This  tract  by  Pye  does  not  seem  to  be  extant  in  either  version. 
Watt  mentions  an  Epistola  ad  Jo.  Howsonum  contra  novum  ejus  Dog- 
ma de  Divortiis  Judaeorum,  which  may  be  the  one  in  question,  but  I 
have  not  been  able  to  locate  it. 

5  The  edition  of  1606,  entitled  Uxore  dismissa,  etc.,  contains,  beside 
the  two  treatises  mentioned,  a  letter  from  Rainolds  to  Pye,  which  is 
valuable  for  its  information  concerning  dates  etc.,  and  also  one  from 
Gentilis  to  Howson,  in  Latin,  in  which  the  writer  gives  his  judgment 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  83 

1610,  Edmund  Bunny  published  his  Of  Divorce,  etc.,  written 
in  1595,  in  which  he  supports  the  opposition  of  the  estab- 
Hshed  church  to  remarriage.  In  the  "Advertisement  to 
the  Reader,'^  Bunny  gives  some  interesting  sidehghts  on  the 
times.  Of  the  controversy  in  hand,  he  says  that  it  was  one 
"as  wherein  divers  of  great  learning  have  already  dealt," 
but  he  does  not  mention  any  by  name.  He  says  also  that 
the  practice  of  divorce  and  remarriage  was  by  no  means 
unusual.  A  few  years  before  the  writing  of  the  treatise, 
there  had  been  "of  one  family  (but  indeed,  one  of  the  great- 
est in  those  parts)  or  therevnto  appertaining,  about  fowre 
several  persons,  and  those  of  some  note  besides,  who  had 
the  so  gotten  divorce,  &  were  married  againe.  And  besides 
those  (who,  it  may  be,  had  else  where  mo  fellowes  also, 
than  that  heady  course  any  waie  deserved)  an  other  there 
was  of  more  speciall  reckoning  tha  they,  who  so  got  divorce 
against  his  wife  also,  &  married  an  other."  ^  Speaking  of 
a  treatise  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  question,  he  says: 
"True  it  is,  that  many  of  the  learned  haue  beene,  and  yet 
are,  of  that  opinion,  &  accordingly  haue  interpreted,  and 
yet  doe,  such  Scriptures  as  they  haue  conceived  to  apper- 
taine  therevnto:  but  it  is  as  true  withal,  that  as  many  of 
the  learned  againe,  if  not  far  mo,  haue  beene,  and  are,  of 
other  opinion,  and  haue  otherwise  vnderstoode,  &  yet  doe, 
those  Scriptures  aforesaid."  ^ 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  go  into  the  arguments  produced 
by  the  opponents  in  this  controversy  to  support  their  re- 
spective beliefs.  The  basis  of  contention,  as  one  sees  from 
Bunny's  remarks,  was,  as  usual.  Scriptural  interpretation 
and  patriarchal  authority.     The  subheading  of  Rainolds' 

of  Pye's  book.  In  the  note  to  the  reader  preceding  this  letter,  there 
is  mentioned  a  reply  to  Pye  by  Dove,  entitled  Doctoris  Pyi  impium  dog- 
ma.   This  also  seems  to  be  non-extant. 

1  Bunny,  op.  cit.,  "Advertisement,"  H  2. 

2  Ibid.,  ^  9. 


84  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

treatise  against  Bellarmino,  if  the  opponent's  name  were 
changed  to  suit  each  occasion,  represents  the  substance  of 
the  argument  in  all  cases:  ''how  he  depraveth  Scriptures, 
misalleageth  fathers,  and  abuseth  reasons,  to  the  pervert- 
ing of  the  truth  of  God  and  poisoning  of  his  Churche  with 
errour."  The  attention  drawn  to  the  question  of  remar- 
riage by  this  controversy  resulted,  in  1603,  in  the  passage 
of  a  new  canon,  to  the  effect  that  ''parties  shall  not  marry 
during  the  lifetime  of  both  and  parties  must  give  good  and 
sufficient  security  that  they  will  not  break  this  agreement."  ^ 
This  canon,  however,  had  little  or  no  effect  in  preventing 
remarriage,  for  as  Godolphin  points  out,  by  forfeiting  the 
security,  one  satisfied  the  law  and  was  free  to  do  what  he 
liked.2 

III.  The  Final  Deadlock 

At  this  point,  about  1610,  and  upon  these  propositions,  — 
the  general  one  of  church  government  and  the  particular 
one  of  divorce  in  its  various  aspects  —  the  Puritan  reformers 
and  the  bishops  of  the  established  church  stood  face  to  face, 
hurling  ineffective  arguments  back  and  forth  until  the  fall 
of  Laud  in  1641.  During  this  time,  the  contention  was 
more  for  power  than  for  principles,  as  both  sides  realized 
that  the  establishment  of  the  latter  depended  upon  the 
possession  of  the  former.  While  Laud  controlled  the  courts 
and  exercised  a  censorship  over  the  press,  there  was  little 
printed  expression  of  opinion;  but  from  the  close  of  his 
power  until  Parliament  itself  censored  the  press  in  1643, 
controversy  ran  wild.^  I  have  before  me  one  pile  of  books 
labeled  "Prynne  and  Opponents,"  another  "Saltmarsh  vs. 
Ley,  etc.,"  and  another  "Smectymuun  Controversy,"  and 

1  Canon  107. 

'  See  below,  p.  87,  n.  1. 

'  Of  course,  there  was  unlicensed  printing  before  and  after  this 
period  of  two  years,  but  not  very  much;  nor  were  the  publications  so 
definitely  upon  controverted  topics. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  85 

I  could  lay  my  hands  on  many  more;  but  all  these  must 
be  passed  over  with  the  comment  that  they  simply  continue 
the  debate  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority  and  have  very 
little  to  say  on  the  subject  we  are  following.^  In  1642, 
there  was  passed  an  act  "for  the  utter  abolishing  and  taking 
away  of  all  archbishops,  bishops,  their  chancellors,  com- 
missaries .  .  .  together  with  their  names,  titles,  jurisdic- 
tions, offices,  and  functions,  and  the  having  or  using  of 
any  jurisdiction  or  power."  This  act  ended,  officially  at 
least,  the  authority  of  the  bishops  until  the  Restoration. 

For  the  final  opposing  opinions  and  the  actual  practice 
of  divorce  in  this  period,  we  must  refer  once  more  to  the 
domestic  books.  Here  we  find  that  there  is  no  change  on 
the  part  of  the  established  church,  but  that  the  Puritans 
have  gone  even  further  than  previously  from  the  old  Catholic 
ideas,  in  narrowing  the  grounds  for  the  nullification  of  mar- 
riage, and  have  departed  from  the  more  liberal  principles 
of  the  German  Reformation,  by  narrowing  the  grounds 
for  divorce.  For  the  latter,  they  admit  only  adultery  and 
desertion,  and  for  nullification,  only  the  Levitical  degrees 
of  relationship.  The  stand  in  regard  to  nullification  was 
due,  perhaps,  to  the  fact  that  the  Star  Chamber  in  1601  had 
reestabUshed  the  law  of  32  Hen.  VIII,  ca.  38,  by  which  the 
impediments  to  marriage  were  limited  to  those  expressed 
in  ''God's  law."  2 

1  The  reader  should  not  get  the  impression  that  church  govern- 
ment and  matrimonial  jurisdiction  were  equally  the  leading  issues  of 
the  day.  By  1642,  church  government  was  probably  the  chief  subject 
in  the  field  of  controversy;  next  to  this  came  questions  of  doctrine. 
Marriage  and  divorce  were  minor  points  in  the  discussion  of  the  former 
of  these  topics;  and  one  might  read  far  into  the  writing  of  the  time  with- 
out finding  mention  of  either,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  many  of 
the  books  and  pamphlets  discussed  above  have  not  been  previously 
examined. 

'  See  above,  p.  62. 


86  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  BELATIONS 

We  have  already  examined,  at  least  briefly,  the  controversy 
waged  over  the  question  of  divorce  versus  separation.  Our 
more  general  conduct  books  continue  the  same  arguments, 
neither  side  yielding  ground.  The  second  edition  of 
Whately's  Bride-bush,  in  1623,  seems  to  be  the  last  Puritan 
book  before  the  censorship  of  the  press  to  uphold  these 
principles  in  full.^  Here,  in  addition  to  the  subject  of 
adultery,  the  two  recognized  forms  of  desertion  —  actual 
departure  from  the  home  and  refusal  of  the  marriage  right  — 
are  discussed  at  some  length,  and  divorce  with  remarriage 
is  allowed  in  either  case,  no  distinction  in  regard  to  sex 
being  made.^  Although  the  Puritans  narrowed  the  grounds 
for  the  nullification  of  marriage,  the  established  church 
clung  to  the  Catholic  practices.  Milton  says  on  this  point: 
"It  [marriage]  was  thought  so  sacramental  that  no  adultery 
or  desertion  could  dissolve  it;  and  this  is  the  sense  of  the 
canon  courts  in  England  to  this  day,  but  in  no  other  re- 
formed church";  again,  "Divorce  for  adultery  and  deser- 
tion, as  all  churches  agree  but  England,  not  only  separates, 
but  nullifies,  and  extinguishes  the  relation  itself  of  matri- 
mony"; and  again,  "We  know  it  [marriage]  dissoluable  for 
adultery  and  for  desertion  by  the  verdict  of  all  reformed 
churches."^  The  Answer  to  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline, 
citing  Coke  as  authority,  gives  for  the  nullification  of 
marriage  causa  precontractus,  causa  frigitatis  or  impotentiae,* 
and  causa  minoris  aetatis  or  impubertatis.^    Separation  a 

^  Gouge's  Domestical  Duties,  c.  1626,  allows  divorce  for  adultery  and 
for  desertion  due  to  difference  of  religious  beliefs,  but  it  does  not  treat 
either  very  fully. 

*  Whately,  op.  dt.,  chaps.  1  and  2. 

'  Milton,  Prose  Works,  I,  344,  and  II,  133,  141,  respectively. 

*  Frigidity  and  impotency  are  synonymous  terms  as  here  used. 
It  was  this  that  Milton  referred  to  as  "natural  frigidity." 

'  Op.  dt.,  p.  2  ff.  The  Levitical  degrees  seem  to  be  taken  for  granted. 
Although  the  causes  here  cited  were  doubtless  those  most  often  plead. 


THE  ATTEMPTED  KEFORM   OF  DIVORCE  87 

mensa  et  thoro  continued  to  be  granted  by  the  established 
church  for  certain  causes,^  and  in  the  case  of  the  desertion 
of  a  Christian  husband  by  a  heretical  wife,  remarriage  was 
allowed.  Thomas  Ridley,  writing  in  1607,  says,  "The  causes 
whereupon  Divorces  grow,  are  Adultery,  deadly  hatred  one 
toward  an  other,  intolerable  cruelty,  neemesse  of  kindred 
and  affinitie  in  degrees  forbidden,  impotencie  on  the  one 
side  or  the  other."  ^  Godolphin,  writing  in  1678,  exhibits 
practically  the  same  state  of  affairs,  and  adds,  ''Touching 
the  kinds  and  effects  of  Divorce,  whether  Divorce  a  vinculo 
Matrimonii  or  separation  a  Mensa  &  Thori,  with  the  causes 
thereof;  the  Divines  and  Lawyers  are  of  different  Opinions, 
and  each  of  these  divided  among  themselves."  ^ 

Opposed  to  this  confusion  of  impediments,  separation, 
divorce,  and  whatnot,  as  administered  or  misadministered, 
by  the  estabUshed  church  courts,  we  may  set  the  clear-cut 

it  is  evident  from  legal  treatises  of  the  time  that  all  the  earlier  ones  were 
still  in  operation. 

^  This  separation  was  the  door  of  opportunity  to  all  who  wished 
to  obtain  an  actual  divorce,  as  the  terms  of  it  failed  to  prevent  re- 
marriage. The  canons  of  1603  attempted  to  put  a  stop  to  its  abuse  by 
requiring  security  against  remarriage,  but  this  did  not  help  matters. 
Godolphin,  in  his  Repertorium  Canonicum,  p.  495,  gives  the  following 
legal  opinion  on  the  point:  "By  enjoyning  such  security  to  be  given, 
and  such  Bonds  to  be  taken,  This  seems  to  be  a  Penal  Canon,  viz. 
pecuniarily  Penal;  whoever  therefore  breaks  the  Law  incurrs  the 
penalty,  and  whoever  suffers  the  penalty,  doth  answer  and  satisfie  the 
Law,  which  before  he  had  infring'd." 

2  Ridley,  A  Viewe  of  Civile  and  Ecclesiasticall  Law,  p.  11.  Ridley 
makes  no  attempt  to  distinguish  between  the  different  kinds  of  divorce, 
and  for  this  reason  his  information  is  of  little  help  to  us.  On  p.  72, 
he  includes  "by  consent"  among  the  means  of  obtaining  a  divorce. 
I  have  found  "mutual  consent"  mentioned  in  several  books;  it  is  usu- 
ally spoken  of  as  not  a  proper  cause  for  divorce,  which  together  with 
Ridley's  statement  seems  to  indicate  that  divorce  of  some  kind  was 
sometimes  obtained  on  this  ground. 

'  Godolphin,  Repertorium  Canonicum,  p.  501. 


88  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

and  definite  statements  of  the  Puritan  divines  as  drawn 
up  by  their  assembly  in  c.  1643  and  published  in  1651 : 

*' Marriage  ought  not  to  be  within  the  degrees  of  consanguinity 
or  affinity  forbidden  in  the  word,  nor  can  such  incestuous  marriages 
ever  be  made  lawful  by  any  law  of  man  or  consent  of  parties.  .  .  . 

"Adultery,  or  fornication  being  committed  after  a  contract 
being  detected  before  marriage,  giveth  just  occasion  to  the  innocent 
party  to  dissolve  the  contract;  in  the  case  of  adultery  after  marriage, 
it  is  lawful  for  the  innocent  party  to  sue  out  a  divorce,  and  after  the 
divorce,  to  marry  another  as  if  the  offending  party  was  dead. 

"Nothing  but  adultery  or  such  wilful  desertion  as  can  no  way  be 
remedied,  by  the  Church  or  Civil  Magistrate,  is  cause  sufficient  of 
dissolving  the  bond  of  marriage,  wherein  a  publike,  and  orderly 
course  of  proceeding,  is  to  be  observed,  and  the  persons  concerned 
in  it  not  left  to  their  own  wills,  and  discretion  in  their  own  case."  * 

But  aside  from  books  of  a  strictly  domestic  nature,  there 
were  many  others  which  treated  of  marriage,  woman,  and 
family  life  from  every  angle  and  in  every  style.  These 
were  popular  books,  too,  both  those  which  were  somewhat 
literary  and  amusing  and  those  which  were  purely  utilitarian 
and  dry.  Moreover,  debates  were  still  raging,  both  in  and 
out  of  print,  on  practically  every  question  that  the  previous 
century  had  raised.  In  our  particular  field,  we  find  the 
pros  and  cons  of  remarriage  after  divorce,  the  marriage  of 
the  clergy,  marriages  made  without  the  parents'  consent, 
the  legal  status  of  children  in  cases  of  divorced  parents, 
and  even  "whether  a  man  may  beat  his  wife."  If  we  add 
to  the  books  here  suggested  all  those  of  purely  literary 
and  religious  character,  as  well  as  the  many  marriage  ser- 
mons, by  men  like  Hall,  Gataker,  Whately,  and  Donne, 
we  may  get  some  idea  of  the  quagmire  in  which  human 
nature,  imprisoned  by  text,  dogma,  and  precedent,  yet 
ever  and  anon  breaking  forth  into  license  and  sin,  was  strug- 

*  The  Late  Assembly  of  Divines  Confession  of  Faith,  p.  263. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFOBM   OF  DIVORCE  89 

gling  for  life  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  "When  I  remem- 
ber/' says  Milton,  "the  little  that  our  Saviour  could  prevail 
about  this  doctrine  of  charity  against  the  crabbed  textuists 
of  his  time,  I  make  no  wonder,  but  rest  confident,  that  whoso 
prefers  either  matrimony  or  other  ordinance  before  the  good 
of  man  and  the  plain  exegence  of  charity,  let  him  profess 
papist,  or  protestant,  or  what  he  will,  he  is  no  better  than 
a  pharisee  and  understands  not  the  gospell.''  ^ 

As  Milton  says,  the  pamphleteers  and  writers  of  domestic 
books  who  touch  upon  the  subject  of  matrimony,  with  a 
few  exceptions,  argue  as  if  they  were  trjdng  to  settle  a  hypo- 
thetical question  rather  than  to  remedy  a  burning  evil 
in  their  own  midst.  But  at  the  time  that  the  assembly  of 
divines  was  about  to  struggle  with  the  problem,  two  writers, 
from  different  walks  of  life  and  from  opposing  sects,  entered 
the  field  to  discuss  the  situation  as  it  actually  existed  and 
from  the  point  of  view  of  living  needs  instead  of  that  of 
Hebrew  history  and  Roman  Catholic  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures.2    These  were  Daniel  Rogers,  an  orthodox  divine, 

1  Milton,  Prose  Works,  I,  340. 

2  One  of  the  most  important  books  of  the  time,  De  Jure  naturali 
et  Gentium,  from  the  pen  of  the  learned  John  Selden,  written  in  Latin 
with  frequent  quotations  from  Greek,  Hebrew,  Assyriaja,  and  other  lan- 
guages, and  mentioned  by  Milton  in  his  first  divorce  tract,  can  hardly 
be  included  among  our  books  on  divorce,  because,  as  the  title  indicates, 
it  is  concerned  not  with  EngUsh  conditions  but  with  primitive  cus- 
toms and  ancient  laws.  These  do,  to  a  certain  extent,  uphold  Milton's 
views,  as  he  fervently  asserts;  but  the  argmnent  "as  it  was  in  the 
beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be"  is  scarcely  tenable.  On  account 
of  the  importance  of  the  book,  I  quote  the  most  important  passage  on 
the  subject  of  divorce: 

"Nequi  enim  separari  aut  dividi  nequibant  conjures,  seu  Matrimonium 
dirimi,  nisi  ex  singulari  aliqua  legis  permissione,  seu  repudii  causa; 
neque  communis  consensus  {quo  ex  veteri  Jure  Caesareo  distrahi  Matri- 
monia  sdmu^)  necessarius  erat,  ut  dirimiretur.  Neque  individvn  did 
potuit  vitae  consuetudo  qvxie  aequo  Jure  a  marito  plurlhus  communica- 


90  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

and  John  Milton,  an  Independent  layman.  The  similarity 
of  their  views  seems  to  be  mere  coincidence,  but  the  causes 
of  it  were  identical  —  existing  conditions.  Rogers  in  his 
domestic  book  Matrimoniall  Honovr,  in  1642,  appealed  to 
human  nature  in  general  by  portraying  the  honor  and  beauty 
of  the  marriage  state  as  it  should  exist;  Milton  in  his  Doc- 
trine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce,  in  1643,  appealed  to  ParUa- 
ment  and  the  assembly  in  particular  by  portraying  the  evils 
and  hideousness  of  marriage  as  it  too  often  did  exist. 

Of  the  former,  we  may  stop  here  only  for  a  quotation, 
in  which  we  may  see  Milton's  ideas  of  compatibility  of  mind 
in  husband  and  wife,  expressed  from  a  different  point  of 
view,  in  a  chapter  on  ''Consent.'' 

"Love  being  the  noble  groundworke,  this  [consent]  the  sweet 
building  upon  the  former  foundation:  both  making  up  marriage, 
to  grow  to  an  happy  frame  and  building,  which  who  so  behold, 
can  no  other  judge,  but  that  those  parties  are  well  met,  and  dwell 
commodiously.  .  .  . 

"This  then  is  the  point,  that  both  married  persons  ought  studi- 
ously Jo  maintaine  this  grace  of  mutuall  consent,  as  a  maine  peece 
of  that,  which  must  maintaine  the  honour  of  their  marriage.v .  .  . 

bcUur.  Quemadmodum  vero  ex  veteri  Jure  Caesareo  distrahdbantur  Matrv- 
monia,  alia  quidem  consentiente  utraque  parte,  pactis  causam,  sicut 
utriqui  {ut  verba  sunt  Justinianii)  placuerit,  guhernantibus,  alia  vero 
per  occasionem  rationabilem  quae  etiam  Bona  gratia  vocabantur,  alia  citra 
omnem  causam,  alia  quoque  cum  causa  rationabili  {cui  libertati  sanctiones 
tam  Caesareae  etiam  quam  Pontificiae  haud  parum  derogarunt)  ita  ex 
Jure  Naturali  ab  ipsis  return  primordiis  communi  citra  ullam  omnino 
causam  ea  distrahi  fas  fuisse  volunt  Magistri.  Idque  pro  libitu  tam  uxoris 
quam  viri,  quod  etiam,  ex  praescriptis  aliquot  causis,  Jure  Caesareo  olim 
permissum  est.  Adeo  ut  pactum  matrimoniale  heic  non  aliud  haberetur 
quam  Sodorum  contractus,  qui  eo  usque  stabilis  manet  dum  in  eodem 
consensu  utrinque  per  server  atur,  &  renundante  societati  alterutro  solvitur. 
Ita,  sive  viro  sive  uxore  matrimonio  renuntiante,  solutum  aiunt  fuisse 
contractum,  velut  divortio  plane  legitimo."  Op.  dt..  Lib.  V,  cap.  vii, 
p.  567. 


THE   ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  91 

"Oh,  thou  sweet  amiablenesse  and  concord,  what  may  not  be 
said  of  thee?  Thou  art  the  offspring  of  God,  the  fruite  of  Redemp- 
tion, the  breath  of  the  spirit:  Thou  art  the  compound  of  contraries, 
the  harmony  of  discords,  the  order  of  Creation,  the  soule  of  the 
world:  without  which,  the  vast  body  thereof  would  soone  dissolve 
it  selve  by  her  owne  burden,  as  wearisome  to  it  selfe,  and  fall  in 
sunder  by  peacemeale  from  each  other."  i 

So  far  Rogers  is  speaking  in  general,  but  further  on  he  be- 
comes more  particular  and  strikes  upon  the  very  element 
which  Milton  emphasizes  most  of  all. 


^ 


"This  consent  must  be  in  the  speech  and  language  of  them 
both:  Its  true  generally,  but  in  this  point  specially,  That  speech 
is  the  discoverer  of  the  mind:  Looke  what  the  abundance  of  the 
heart  is,  that  will  vent  it  selfe  at  the  mouth.  .  .  .  Yea,  the  speech 
of  each  to  other  should  bee  (without  flattery)  as  the  glasse,  to  be- 
hold each  other  in.  As  face  answers  to  face  in  the  water,  so  doth 
man  accomodate  himself e  to  his  friend  (saith  Salomon),  how  much 
more  the  husband  and  wife  to  each  other?  They  should  even 
resemble  each  others  frame  and  temper  (in  the  Lord)  with  all 
ingenuity.  As  the  beames  do  represent  the  Sun,  in  her  heat  and 
light:  so  should  the  sweet  carriage  of  the  wife,  argue  the  body  j 
which  gives  her  influence,  even  her  husbands  virtues."  *  """^ 

This  is  far  prettier  and  more  dignified  than  Milton's  treat- 
ment of  the  same  subject,  though  it  lacks  the  force  of  the 
latter 's  sound  and  fury.  But  Rogers  goes  no  further;  he 
merely  exhibits  and  eulogizes  the  qualities  which  go  to  make 
a  successful  marriage  and  leaves  the  subject  there.  Of 
divorce  he  has  nothing  to  say. 

Milton  chose  the  psychological  moment  to  hurl  his  '' doc- 
trine of  freedom"  in  divorce  matters  at  the  head,  or  heads, 
of  the  English  nation,  which  was  fairly  wallowing  in  the 
slough  of  despond  over  the  questions  of  church,  state,  and 
personal  liberty.    The  official  overthrow  of  the  bishops  took 

*  Rogers,  op.  dt.,  p.  184  ff. 
2  lUd.,  p.  189. 


92  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

place  in  1642,  but  the  bill  effecting  it  did  not  take  the  power 
of  jurisdiction  from  the  church,  and  the  bishops  did  not 
lose  the  name  and  dignity  of  office  imtil  1646.  *'In  this 
interval,"  says  Neal,  **  there  was  properly  no  established 
form  of  government,  the  clergy  being  permitted  ...  to 
govern  their  parishes  according  to  their  discretion.'^  ^  On 
June  12,  1643,  the  famous  assembly  was  appointed  for  the 
consideration  "  of  all  things  necessary  for  the  peace  and 
government  of  the  church.''  This  assembly  convened  on 
July  1,  and  within  a  month  of  this  date,  Milton's  tract 
The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  and  Divorce  appeared.^  Before 
the  assembly  had  time  to  get  more  than  well  started,  Milton 
brought  out  a  second  edition  of  the  tract  dedicated  "to  the 
Parliament  with  the  Assembly."  ^  The  dedication  con- 
tains a  strong  appeal  to  those  in  power  to  take  some  action 
to  remedy  the  marital  evils  of  the  time. 

"You  it  concerns  chiefly,  worthies  of  parliament!  on  whom  as  on 
our  deliverers,  all  our  grievances  and  cares,  by  merit  of  your  emi- 
nence and  fortitude,  are  divolved.  ...  Ye  have,  now,  doubtless, 
by  the  favour  and  appointment  of  God,  ye  have  now  in  your  hands 
a  great  and  populous  nation  to  reform;  from  what  corruption, 
what  blindness  in  religion,  ye  know  well;  in  what  a  degenerate  and 

1  Neal,  II,  503. 

2  Thomason's  date  of  Aug.  1,  1643,  seems  to  be  now  pretty  gener- 
ally accepted,  despite  Philips'  statement  that  the  tract  was  first  con- 
ceived about  Michelmas  of  that  year.  In  Appendix  B,  below,  I  discuss 
this  matter  of  date  in  full.  In  the  same  place,  I  attempt  to  overthrow 
Philips'  further  statement,  and  all  later  theories  built  upon  it,  that  the 
tract  was  written  because  Milton  himself  wished  to  obtain  a  divorce 
from  his  wife. 

'  The  second  edition  appeared  [Feb.  2],  1644.  It  differs  greatly  in 
size  and  general  make-up  from  the  first.  It  is  one-third  longer,  is  divided 
into  books  and  chapters,  contains  references  to  authorities  not  men- 
tioned before,  and  is  prefaced  by  the  dedication  mentioned  above. 
My  remarks,  however,  except  where  noted,  apply  to  both  editions. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF  DIVORCE  93 

fallen  spirit  from  the  apprehension  of  native  liberty,  and  true 
manUness,  I  am  sure  ye  find;  with  what  unbounded  Ucense  rushing 
to  whoredoms  and  adulteries,  needs  not  long  inquiry."  ^ 

Milton's  tract  is  too  well  known  to  need  any  detailed 
analysis  here,  but  as  several  of  the  issues  of  the  period  cul- 
minated in  it,  it  is  necessary  to  look  for  a  moment  at  the 
more  important  doctrines  advocated.  Although  Perkins 
is  the  only  previous  writer  mentioned  in  the  first  edition 
of  the  tract,  it  is  certain  that  Milton  was  f  amiHar  with  the 
general  arguments  on  all  sides  of  the  question  and  with 
the  conditions  which  led  to  the  stagnant  and  corrupt  state 
of  marital  society  and  jurisdiction  thereupon.  The  Doc- 
trine and  Discipline  was  and  still  is  considered  revolutionary; 
but  the  truth  is  that  it  does  not  contain  a  single  point  which 
was  not  either  previously  advocated  or  actually  in  practice, 
although  certain  principles  are  emphasized  more  than  they 
had  been  before.  The  one  usually  taken  as  Milton's  chief 
contribution  to  the  controversy  is  the  famous  proposition 
that  ''indisposition,  unfitness,  or  contrariety  of  mind,  arising 
in  nature  unchangeable,  hindering  and  ever  likely  to  hinder 
the  main  benefits  of  conjugal  society,  which  are  happiness 
and  peace,"  should  be  recognized  as  a  just  and  sufficient 
cause  for  divorce.  That  this  principle  was  already  current^  y 
is  shown  by  Erasmus'  mention  of  ''disidium  animorum^' 
among  the  impediments  to  marriage;  ^  by  the  gloss  made  \ 
by  the  Reform  divines  on  Deut.  24,  1,  in  their  Annotations 
of  the  Books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  where  it  is  stated 
that  to  the  usual  causes  of  divorce  "are  added  by  some, 
barrennesse,  madnesse,  stubbornnesse,  reproachfull  insolence 
toward  her  husband,  which  is  an  uncleannesse  of  the  minde, 
or  any  other  thing  which  dispose  him  rather  to  loath  them 

1  Milton,  Prose  Works,  I,  336. 
'  See  above,  p.  9,  n.  2. 


94  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

than  to  love  her; "  ^  and  by  the  comments  of  Perkins  and 
Ridley  already  quoted.^    There  can  be  no  doubt,  however, 
that  such  "uncleanness  of  the  mind"  had  never  before  been 
boldly  proclaimed.    Nevertheless,  as  a  ground  for  divorce,  it 
I  was  but  a  logical  result  of  the  Puritan  attitude  towards  mar- 
j  riage,  according  to  which  matrimony  was  instituted  for  the 
j  mutual  blessing  and  benefit  of  husband  and  wife  instead  of  for 
I  the  procreation  of  children  and  the  avoidance  of  sin,  as  the 
lolder  writers  upheld.^    This  idea  of  marriage  as  a  conjugal  so- 
•^ety  of  happiness  and  peace  rather  than  a  ''prescribed  satis- 
faction for  irrational  heat,"  to  use  Milton's  phrase,  is  indeed 
the  basis  of  the  whole  treatise,  and  every  argument,  whether 
in  support  of  the  new  doctrine  or  in  opposition  to  the  old, 
takes  its  source  from  this  conception.    The  Puritan  writers 
before  Milton  had  tended  towards  emphasizing  mental  and 
spiritual  satisfaction  in  marriage  rather  than  mere  physical, 
but  they  failed  to  see  the  fallacy  of  their  position  in  allowing 
divorce   for    only    adultery    and    desertion.    This    Milton 
points   out.     ''Among   Christian   writers   touching   matri- 
mony," he  says,  "there  be  three  chief  ends  thereof  agreed 
on:   godly  society,  next  civil,  and  thirdly,  that  of  the  mar- 
riage-bed.    Of  these  the  first  in  name  be  the  highest  and 
most  excellent,  no  baptized  man  can  deny;  .  .  .  but  he 
who  affirms  adultery  to  be  the  highest  breach,  affirms  the 
bed  to  be  the  highest  of  marriage,  which  is  in  truth  a  gross 
and  boorish  opinion,  how  common  soever."  ^ 

1  This  work  is  entered  in  the  Stationers^  Register  Oct.  31,  1643. 
This  is,  of  course,  after  the  publication  of  Milton's  tract,  but  it  cannot 
be  supposed  that  such  a  voluminous  work  —  two  large  tomes  —  could 
have  been  accomplished  in  the  time  between  the  two  dates.  There 
is  a  possibility  that  the  note  may  have  been  inserted  in  consequence 
of  Milton's  argument,  but  this  is  unlikely,  especially  as  the  authors 
of  the  Annotations  had  no  sympathy  with  his  religious  principles. 

2  See  above,  pp.  80,  87. 

3  For  a  full  discussion  of  this  difference  in  attitude  towards  mar- 
riage, see  below,  p.  119  ff. 

4  Milton,  Prose  Works,  I,  367. 


THE  ATTEMPTED   KEFORM   OF   DIVORCE  95 

Since  the  practices  of  church  and  state  were,  as  I  have 
shown,  in  a  complete  muddle  in  regard  to  divorce  jurisdic- 
tion, Milton  wastes  no  time  in  attacking  existing  condi- 
tions, but  instead  uses  their  contradictions  and  corruptions 
as  a  foil  for  the  new  doctrine  he  has  to  advance.  In  this 
way  they  are  mentioned  continually,  —  no  distinction 
being  made  between  those  of  the  old  Catholic  canons  and 
those  of  the  recent  Puritan  agitation  —  but  they  are  always 
subordinated  to  the  main  issue  of  the  tract,  which  is  con- 
structive rather  than  destructive.  Milton's  whole  attitude 
towards  the  canon  law  is  shown  in  the  heading  of  his  third 
chapter,  ''The  ignorance  and  iniquity  of  the  Canon  Law, 
providing  for  the  right  of  the  body  in  marriage,  but  nothing 
for  the  wrongs  and  grievances  of  the  mind."  Again,  of  the 
evil  and  confusion  of  the  time  in  affairs  matrimonial,  he 
says,  ''All  of  which  we  can  refer  justly  to  no  other  cause  but 
canon  law  and  her  adherents."  Of  the  old  separation  a 
mensa  et  thoro,  he  remarks  in  passing,  "And  this  I  observe 
that  our  divines  do  generally  condemn  separation  of  bed 
and  board,  without  the  liberty  of  second  choice."  ^  Di- 
vorce for  "spiritual  adultery,"  "which  is  so  much  contro- 
verted," he  admits,  as  of  course  he  would  have  to  for  the 
sake  of  consistency  at  least.  Divorce  for  plotting  by  one 
party  against  the  life  of  the  other,  to  which  "the  canon  law 
and  divines  consent,"  he  admits  also.  In  regard  to  the  im- 
pediments annulling  marriage,  he  expresses  himself  only  to 
oppose  the  emphasis  laid  by  canon  law  upon  sexual  im- 
potency. 

Except  in  insisting  upon  divorce  for  incompatibility  of  tem- 
per, to  apply  the  modern  phrase,  Milton  does  not  go  beyond 
the  views  of  the  more  radical  Puritan  writers  in  any  respect. 
As  we  have  already  seen,  the  two  chief  points  where  these 
differed  from  orthodox  doctrine,  were  the  equaUty  of  man 

*  Milton,  Prose  Works,  II,  54. 


96  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

and  woman  in  divorce  suits,  which  had  been  advocated  by 
the  more  liberal  thinkers  ever  since  the  Reformation,  and  the 
practice  of  self-divorce,  which  I  have  been  at  some  pains  to 
show  continued  to  be  used  to  date  among  the  Independents. 
On  the  first  of  these  points,  Milton  goes  into  neither  detail 
nor  argument,  but  the  subtitle  of  his  tract,  describing  it  as 
restoring  divorce  "to  the  good  of  both  sexes,"  shows  clearly 
that  he  meant  to  place  husband  and  wife  upon  the  same 
iooting  before  the  law,  although  he  writes  entirely  from  the 
man's  point  of  view.^  Indeed,  this  was  one  of  the  objec- 
tions raised  against  the  tract  by  the  anonymous  answer, 
in  which  the  reader  is  instructed  to  take  notice  "that  all 
his  Arguments,  to  prove  a  man  may  put  away  his  wife  for 
disagreement  of  minde  or  disposition,  except  it  be  his  Argu- 
ment from  Deu.  24. 1.  they  prove  as  effectually,  that  the  Wife 
may  sue  a  Divorce  from  her  Husband  upon  the  same 
grounds."  ^  The  second  point,  that  of  private  divorce,  is 
given  considerable  attention  towards  the  end  of  the  tract. 
It  was  quite  evident  to  Milton,  as  it  must  be  to  us,  that  the 
logical  outcome  of  the  long  dispute  between  church  and 
state  rights  and  of  the  abolition  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts, 
was  the  restoration  of  jurisdiction  in  marital  affairs  to  the 
civil  authority.    But,  although  the  Independents  and  other 

^  Nevertheless,  Milton  runs  into  inconsistencies  on  the  subject  of 
women's  rights  in  divorce  matters.  Despite  the  fact  that  in  general 
he  upholds  the  Puritan  doctrine  of  equal  rights  for  both  sexes,  he  evi- 
dently discriminates  against  the  wife  in  saying  that  "the  absolute 
and  final  hindering  of  divorce  cannot  belong  to  any  civil  or  earthly 
power,  against  the  will  and  consent  of  both  parties,  or  of  the  husband 
alone."  {Prose  Works,  II,  53.)  On  the  other  hand,  in  translating 
Bucer's  book,  he  passes  over  Chapter  XXXIV,  entitled  "That  it  is 
lawful  for  a  wife  to  leave  an  adulterer"  with  the  remark  that  "this  is 
generally  granted,  and  therefore  excuses  me  the  writing  out."  But 
certainly  his  proposed  private  divorce  either  by  consent  of  both  parties 
or  by  that  of  the  husband  alone,  discriminates  against  the  wife. 

2  Answer  to  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline,  p.  13. 


THE   ATTEMPTED   REFORM   OF   DIVORCE  97 

non-conformists  favored  such  restoration  of  power  to  the 
civil  courts  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  matters  involved,  they 
differed  from  their  more  orthodox  brethren  in  persistently 
upholding  that  marriage  and  everything  pertaining  thereto 
was  entirely  a  personal  and  private  affair,  with  which  neither 
church  nor  state  had  anything  to  do  except  to  witness 
the  event.  We  have  already  noted  Milton's  statement  in 
regard  to  marriage.^  His  platform  for  divorce  is  quite  con- 
sistent with  this  in  its  opposition  to  both  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction.  In  concluding  his  argument  on  this 
point,  he  says, ''  Shall  then  the  disposal  of  that  power  return 
again  to  the  master  of  family?  Wherefore  not,  since  God 
there  put  it,  and  the  presumptuous  Canon  there  bereft  it? 
This  only  must  be  provided,  that  the  ancient  manner  be 
observed  in  the  presence  of  the  minister  and  other  grave 
selected  Elders."  2 

With  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline,  the.  long  controversy 
culminated.  The  advanced  doctrines  of  the  most  advanced 
thinker  of  the  time,  as  herein  expressed,  were  received,  on 
the  whole,  as  the  crabbed  textuists  and  the  carnally  minded 
people  of  that  day  would  naturally  be  expected  to  receive 
them,  the  attitude  of  the  former  being  as  exasperating  as 
that  of  the  latter  is  disgusting.  Although  Milton  says  that 
the  tract  was  "held  by  some  of  the  best  among  reformed 
writers  [to  be]  without  scandal  or  refutement,  though  now 
thought  new  and  dangerous  by  some  of  our  Gnostics,'' 
and  that  others  thought  it  had  "of  reason  in  it  to  a  suffi- 
ciency,"^ there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  general  church- 
going  public  was  both  scandalized  and  incensed,  at  least 
by  the  doctrine  or  divorce  for  ''indisposition,  unfitness, 
or  contrariety  of  mind."     The  tract  was  answered  by  an 

^  See  above,  p.  60 

2  Milton,  Prose  Works,  II,  61. 

3  IhU.,  II,  112,  115. 


98  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

anonymous  writer  from  the  orthodox  standpoint  in  1644/ 
was  stigmatized  in  a  sermon  before  Pariiament  as  wicked 
and  deserving  to  be  burnt,  and  was  condemned,  along  with 
certain  others,  by  Featley  as  advocating  "most  damnable 
doctrines."  ^  The  most  authoritative  opinion  expressed 
against  it  was  that  subscribed  to  and  published,  in  1647,  by 
certain  ministers  of  London  under  the  title  of  A  Testimony 
to  the  Truth  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  which  they  declare  their  ''de- 
testation and  abhorence"  of  Milton's  divorce  for  ''indis- 
position, unfitness,  or  contrariety  of  miiid."  ^  It  may  be 
worthy  of  mention  that  in  this  tract  neither  his  principle 
of  equal  rights  for  man  and  woman  nor  his  advocacy  of 
private  divorce  is  criticized,  and  a  marginal  note  directs 
the  reader  to  "  peruse  the  whole  book." 

Meanwhile(Milton  had  come  to  his  own  defense  by  trans- 
lating passages  from  the  second  book  of  Bucer's  De  Regno 
Christi  in  1644,^  which  expressed  the  extreme  liberal  views 
of  the  German  Reformers,  but  did  not  touch  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  private  divorce  or  go  quite  far  enough  generally  to 
justify  Milton  altogether  in  saying,  "I  hope  this  will  excuse 
me  with  the  mere  Englishman  to  be  a  forger  of  new  and 
loose  opinions."  In  the  following  year,  he  published  his 
Tetrachordon,  in  which  he  follows  the  suggestion  of  some  of 
his  friendly  critics  and  discusses  at  length  the  "four  chief 

places  xd  Scripture  concerning  nullities  in  marriage."     In 
/" 

*  An  Answer  to  a  Book,  Intituled^  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of 
Divorce.  This  Answer  is  directed  against  the  first  edition  of  Milton's 
tract  only,  and  replies  merely  to  the  first  part  of  that.  The  principle  of 
private  divorce  is  therefore  not  mentioned. 

'  Featley,  The  Dippers  dipt,  f .  B2  b. 

^  Op.  dt.,  p.  19.  In  the  same  paragraph,  the  ministers  condemn  also 
the  doctrine  expressed  in  Ldttle  Nonsuch,  a  slight  and  none  too  serious 
tract,  anonymously  published  in  1646,  which  advocated  the  marriage 
of  kin,  after  the  example  of  the  first  people  upon  earth. 

*  Under  the  title  of  The  Judgment  of  Martin  Bucer,  etc. 


THE  ATTEMPTED  REFORM   OF  DIVORCE  99 

this  tract  he  takes  every  opportunity  to  reiterate  and  ampUf y 
the  principles  of  his  Doctrine  and  Discipline  for  divorce  on 
mental  rather  than  physical  grounds.  In  the  same  year, 
1645,  he  replied  to  the  "nameless  author"  above  mentioned, 
in  a  short  tract  called  Colasteron,  but  this  work  adds  nothing 
of  interest  to  the  controversy. 

What  were  the  actual  conditions  of  divorce  legislation  and 
jurisdiction  from  this  time  to  the  Restoration,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  determine  accurately.  The  writer  of  the  Answer 
to  Milton's  tract,  quoting  Coke  as  authority,  defines  divorce 
as  a  "sentence  pronounced  by  an  Ecclesiasticall  Judge, 
whereby  a  man  and  woman  formerly  married,  are  separated 
or  parted";^  but  as  already  noted,  it  does  not  seem  pos- 
sible that  the  church  or  any  of  its  officers  could  have  held 
court  for  divorce  cases  at  this  time.  Private  divorce  doubt- 
less existed  to  some  extent  among  the  Independents,  and 
among  others  the  word  of  the  local  pastor  may  have  been 
deemed  sufficient.  Cromwell's  act  of  1653  was  the  first 
official  expression  of  any  kind  during  this  period.  Despite 
Milton's  efforts  to  have  divorce  by  private  act  estabhshed 
as  the  recognized  legal  method,  Cromwell  wisely  decided 
to  steer  a  more  conservative  course  and  to  put  the  matter 
into  the  hands  of  the  civil  magistrates;  but  though  this  act  * 
appoints  officials  to  decide  cases,  it  gives  no  intimation  of 
what  were  the  acknowledged  grounds  —  if,  indeed,  any 
existed  —  for  their  decisions.    The  bill  reads: 

"That  the  hearing  and  determining  of  all  matters  and  contro- 
versies touching  Contracts  and  Marriages,  and  the  lawfulness  and 
unlawfulness  thereof;  and  all  Exceptions  against  Contracts  and 
Marriages,  and  the  Distribution  of  Forfeitures  within  this  Act, 
shall  be  in  the  power,  and  referred  to  the  Determination  of  the  Jus- 
tices of  the  Peace,  in  each  County,  City  or  Town  Corporate,  at  / 
the  General  Quarter  Sessions;  or  of  such  other  persons  to  hear 
and  determine  the  same,  as  Parliament  shall  hereafter  appoint."  2 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  2. 

2  Scobell,  II,  238. 


100  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

Although  nothing  seems  to  have  been  done  to  form  a 
legal  and  authoritative  code  of  rules  or  principles  on  which 
such  controversies  and  exceptions  might  be  based,  the 
appointment  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  as  judges  in  these 
matters  was  a  long  step  in  advance.  But,  of  course,  the 
Restoration  overturned  all  this,  and  conditions  reverted 
to  those  of  the  early  part  of  the  century,  except  for  the  fact 
that  by  1700  divorce  by  special  act  of  Parliament  became 
possible  to  the  wealthy.  Since  then  England  has  muddled 
along  in  her  usual  way,  and  even  the  reforms  of  1857,  the 
first  since  Cromwell's  time,  left  divorce  affairs  in  a  state 
that  can  hardly  be  thought  satisfactory.' 


CHAPTER   IV 
THE  DOMESTIC  CONDUCT  BOOK 

I.  The  Type  and  its  Origin 

The  origin  of  the  domestic  conduct  book  in  England 
cannot  be  accurately  determined.  Priority  for  native  writ- 
ing in  this  field  may  be  claimed  on  the  evidence  of  Wiclif's 
brief  treatise  (if  indeed  Wiclif  wrote  it  ^  entitled  Of  Weddid 
Men  and  Wifis  and  of  Here  Children  also,  but  as  this  was 
not  printed  until  the  nineteenth  century,  it  is  difficult  to  say 
whether  or  not  it  had  any  influence  in  the  establishment  of 
the  genre,  which  did  not  take  place  for  a  hundred  years 
after  Wiclif's  death.  At  this  time,  the  first  books  were 
of  foreign  origin,  although  earlier  interest  in  domestic  affairs  ] 
is  evidenced  in  England  by  writing  on  morals,  manners,  and  ' 
so  forth,  especially  in  books  for  the  instruction  of  children, 
and  was  doubtless  one  of  the  causes  for  the  translation  ofj 
continental  works.  But  after  the  establishment  of  the  tjrpe, 
EngHsh  writers  soon  entered  the  field,  and  although  foreign 
books  continued  to  be  translated,  the  continuation  and 
development  of  the  writing  of  books  concerning  domestic 
affairs  may  be  said  to  have  been  almost  entirely  a  native 
product.  In  its  most  complete  form,  a  book  of  this  type 
contained  four  principal  subjects:  (1)  discussion  of  the 
marriage  state  from  religious  and  secular  standpoints,  (2) 
the  legal  elements  involved  in  contracting  matrimony, 
(3)  mutual  relations  of  husband  and  wife,  (4)  the  govem- 

^  It  is  ascribed  to  Wiclif  on  the  ground  of  its  presence  in  a  volume 
which  Archbishop  Parker,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  beUeved  to  contain 
only  tracts  of  Wiclif's  composition.  No  other  evidence  on  the  question 
seems  available. 

101 


102  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

ment  of  the  family,  including  housekeeping,  the  upbringing 
of  children,  the  management  of  servants,  and  general  house- 
hold economics.  The  ultimate  sources  of  all  these  books 
were  the  New  Testament  (especially  the  teachings  of  St. 
Paul),  the  classics,  and  the  church  fathers. 

Wiclif 's  treatise,  but  twelve  pages  long  in  its  present  form, 
is  divided  into  five  chapters,  which  may  be  summarized: 
(1)  the  two  kinds  of  marriage  {i.e.  that  of  God  and  his 
church  and  that  of  man  and  woman),  (2)  the  domestic  ele- 
ments in  human  wedlock,  (3)  the  common  duties  of  husband 
and  wife,  (4)  the  relations  of  parents  and  children,  (5)  duties 
and  dangers  in  family  life.  The  book  lacks  any  discus- 
sion of  the  contract  and  ceremony  of  marriage,  the  grounds 
of  divorce  or  annulment,  and  the  care  of  the  house  and 
servants.  Similarly,  no  one  of  the  first  group  of  domestic 
books  presents  a  complete  model  for  the  type;  hence  the 
selection  and  combination  of  the  important  features  of 
earher  works  were  the  particular  contributions  of  sixteenth 
century  English  writers  and  their  foreign  contemporaries 
from  whom  they  translated,  to  the  development  of  the  genre. 
The  latter,  taken  altogether,  covered  practically  all  of  the 
different  elements  of  the  field,  and  in  two  cases  at  least  ^ 
seem  to  have  set  the  form  for  the  English  writers. 

Among  the  very  earliest  books  printed  in  England,  we 
find  the  first  on  the  family.  This  is  Caxton's  Boke  of  Good 
Manners,  translated  from  the  French  of  Jaques  LeGrand 
in  1487  and  repubHshed  at  least  four  times  before  the  century 
was  out.  The  treatise,  118  folio  pages  in  all,  is  divided  into 
five  books,  which  contain  general  instruction,  or  moraliza- 
tion,  on  the  life  of  man  and  on  his  various  professions.  The 
first  is  on  the  seven  virtues  and  some  of  the  corresponding 
vices;  the  second  on  church  people  and  clerks;  the  third 
on   the   lords  temporal;    the   fourth  on  ''thestate  of   the 

^  LeGrand's  and  Bullinger's. 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  103 

comynalte  and  of  the  people";  the  fifth  on  the  transitory- 
character  of  Hfe  and  the  coming  of  death.  Of  these,  the 
fourth  alone  concerns  us,  and  of  it,  only  certain  chapters. 
It  runs  to  twenty-six  pages;  the  chapter  on  matrimony  is 
but  three,  and  those  on  household  affairs  but  a  little  more 
than  one  each.    The  complete  contents  are  as  follows: 

I.  Of  Rychemen  and  how  they  ought  to  glor3rfye  in  theyr 

ry  chesses. 
II.   Of  the  state  of  pouerte  whyche  ought  to  be  agreable. 

III.  Of  the  state  of  olde  age  wherin  a  ma  oust  to  be  vertuous. 

IV.  Of  the  state  of  yonge  peple  &  how  they  shold  gouerne  them. 
V.   Of  the  state  of  maryage.  &  how  it  oust  to  be  mayntened. 

VI.  How  wymmen  ought  to  be  gouerned. 
VII.  How  virginite  &  maydenhede  oust  to  be  maynteyned. 
VIII.  Of  thestate  of  wymmen  wydowes. 
IX.  How  seruautes  oust  to  be  mayntened  in  theyr  seruyce. 
X.   How  they  that  ben  of  euyl  lyf  dyen  ylle. 
XI.   How  fader  and  moder  ought  to  teche  theyr  chyldren. 
XII.  How  chyldren  owen  obeyssauce  &  honour  to  their  parents. 

XIII.  Of  thestate  of  marchaunts. 

XIV.  Of  thestate  of  pylgryms. 

XV.  How  dedely  synnes  desyren  deth. 

Here  we  find  eight  chapters  whose  subjects  have  place 
in  practically  all  later  domestic  books  and  which  indeed 
form  the  greater  part  of  them.  These  are  the  fourth,  fifth, 
sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth.  It 
is  evident  that  the  arrangement  of  subject  matter  here  is 
very  poor;  nevertheless,  the  substance,  though  briefly 
expressed,  and  the  treatment  also,  is  typical  of  this  whole 
species  of  book.  The  fifth  chapter  is  the  most  important 
one  for  us.  On  account  of  the  rarity  of  the  book  and  the 
importance  of  its  subject  and  style,  I  am  led  to  quote 
from  it  at  some  length.  The  passage  below  contains  all 
that  is  essential. 


V 


104  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

"Mariage  is  ordeyned  for  to  haue  lygnage.  and  for  to  loue  eche 
other.    And  therfor  thappostle  seynt  poul  in  his  fythe  chapitre  ad- 
monesteth  the  wedded  men  sayeng  ye  men  loue  your  wjoies  as  Jhus 
Cryste  loueth  his  chyrche.  And  to  this  purpoos  valere  in  his  iiij  boke 
the  V  chapytre  recyteth  how  a  man  named  graceus  lonyd  ^  his  wyf 
named  Corneylle  so  moche  that  he  wold  deye  for  to  gete  helthe  of 
his  wyf.  he  recounteth  also  how  Cuplacius  herd  saye  that  his  wyf 
was  deed.    And  thene  he  smote  hym  self  in  the  breste  with  a  knyf 
and  requyred  to  be  with  her.  .  .  .  ^  Semblably  also  the  wjonmen 
owen  to  loue  theyr  husbondes/  And  herof  we  haue  example  as  val- 
ere recounteth  in  his  boke  aforfaid.    how  Julia  the  doughter  of 
Cezar  seeyng  the  Robe  of  hir  husbond  spotted  wyth  blood  was 
soo  troubled  that  for  sorowe  and  henynes/  her  chyld  that  she  had 
within  her  bely  was  destroyed.   .   .   .  After  he  recyteth  of   the 
doughter  of  Cathon  named  Porcia  seeyng  her  husboud  brutus  to 
be  slayn/  she  demaunded  a  knyf  to  slee  her  self  also/   And  by 
cause  that  none  wold  delyiie  to  her  no  knyf.  she  toke  brennyng 
cooles.  and  put  them  in  her  monthe  &  ete  them  don  in  suche  wyse 
that  she  deyde  by  a  right  marueyllo^  manere.  ...  *  And  it  is  good 
to  knowe  how  in  mariage  after  the  doctours.  thre  thynges  ought  to 
be/  that  is  to  wete  fayth.  loyalte/  lygnage  &  sacrament/  By  fayth 
and  loyalte  is  gyuen  to  understode  that  neyther  of  the  parties  maryed 
ought  not  to  trespace  with  his  body  but  to  kepe  it  to  his  partye/ 
For  as  thapostle  saith  in  his  fyrst  epystle  to  the  Corynthyeus/ 
the  body  of  the  man  is  bylongyng  to  the  wyf.    And  the  body  of 
the  wjrf  to  the  man.  that  is  to  understonde  in  mariage/  And  as 
seynt  Ambrose  saith  in  his  exameron.  god  made  eue  of  the  syde 
of  Adam/  in  signefy...nce  that  in  mariage  a  man  and  woman 
ought  to  be  all  one  body  one  self  thyng.    And  me  semeth  that  the 
partye  that  forfayteth  his  maryage/  dooth  a  yenst  the  lawe  of 
nature/  For  the  storke  hath  suche  forfayture  in  abhomynacon 
of  storkes  to  flee  hym  or  her  that  so  forfayteth.  lyke  as  Alexander 
recouteth  in  his  boke  of  nature  of  byrdes.    And  me  semeth  it  is  a 
grete  abhomynacion  to  see  in  many  maryages  so  lytyl  fayth  and 
loyalte  as  now  is.    But  I  byleue  that  one  of  the  causes  emonge  the 

*  Evidently  a  misprint  for  louyd.     Confusion  of  n  and  u  often 
occurs  in  the  book. 

*  Other  stories  omitted. 


THE  DOMESTIC  CONDUCT  BOOK  105 

other  is.  that  the  maryage  be  not  duely  maad.  but  for  money, 
or  other  euyl  cause  Thene  it  is  noo  merueylle  that  the  maryage 
contynue  not  well  syth  the  begynuyng  therfor  the  kynge  lygurgis 
wolde  and  ordeyued  in  his  Royame  that  the  virgynes  and  maydens 
shold  be  wedded  without  to  haue  gold  or  syluer  to  thende  that  the 
maryage  shold  not  be  made  of  couetyse.  lyke  as  pompeus  recyteth 
in  his  iij  boke/  And  valere  in  his  vij  boke  the  first  chaytre  recyteth 
how  one  demanded  somtym  of  a  phylosopher  named  themystodes- 
how  and  to  whome  he  shold  marye  his  doughter.  that  is  to  wete  to- 
a  poure  man  or  to  a  ryche.  The  whiche  ansuerde.  that  he  ought  not 
to  demande  pouerte  ne  richesse.  but  the  bounte  and  the  vertues. 
of  the  ma.  More  ouer  in  maryage  ther  lyeth  right  grete  aduys. 
and  not  onely  for  parantage  but  also  for  to  Mayntene  it/  And  to 
this  purpoos  speketh  Theophraste  dystyple  of  Arystotle/  in  his 
boke  that  he  made  of  maryage '  in  whiche  he  saith.  that  a  ma  ought 
more  to  beholde  the  bounte  of  the  woman  than  the  beaulte.  and 
yf  thou  demande  whiche  is  better  to  take  a  fayr  woman  or  a  foule 
he  ansuerde.  that  it  is  an  hard  thyng  to  kepe  a  fayr  woman  the 
whiche  many  men  desyre.  And  it  is  a  grete  payne  to  loue  the  foule 
one  whiche  many  despyse.  alleway  yf  she  be  good  the  goodnesse 
shal  kepe  her  beaulte.  And  yf  she  be  not  fayr.  it  is  none  hard  thyng 
to  loue  her  that  is  of  right  good  wyll.  for  naturally  &  resonably 
more  ought  the  bounte  to  be  praysed  than  the  beaulte.  Moreouer 
in  maryage  is  moche  to  be  suffred.  singulerly  yf  bothe  parties  be 
not  wyse.  For  men  ben  ofte  suspecyonno?  of  theyr  wyues/  Ther- 
fore  ought  a  woman  to  be  symple  and  good.  &  not  onely  of  her 
body,  but  also  of  her  maynten  and  maners/  For  in  spekying.  in 
beholdyng.  ne  in  conuersace  she  ought  not  doo  ony  thyng.  by 
whiche  ony  other  myght  thynke  or  Juge  in  her  ony  euyll.  .  .  .  The 
men  also  that  purpose  to  marye  oughten  to  aduyse  and  beholde 
the  condycon  of  her  that  thay  desyre  to  haue  to  wyf .  But  many 
ben  deceyued  by  cause  they  take  them  in  the  age  of  xij  yere  or  ther 
aboute.  and  thene  what  they  be/  noman  may  wete  ne  knowe. 
For  as  the  comyn  prouerbe  saith/  how  seeth  a  chylde.  seeth  no 
thyng/  Also  in  maryeng  hym  self,  one  ought  to  here  many  speke 
For  loue  and  carnal  affeccyon  blyndeth  the  understondyng.  and 
maketh  a  man  fauourable  to  Juge.  whan  he  is  surprysed  of  suche 


106  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

loue.  therfore  a  ma  ought  to  byleve  more  another  than  hym 
self."  1 

The  chapters  on  women,  servants,  parents,  and  chil- 
dren, although  short,  formulate  the  nature  of  the  instruction 
found  in  all  later  books  on  family  affairs.  The  woman 
should  fear  and  obey  her  husband  and  should  not  wear 
gaudy  clothes  or  attempt  to  improve  her  complexion. 

"A  woman  ought  to  haue  resonably  two  condicons.  that  is  to 
wyte/  shame  of  repreef  /  and  drede  of  disobeyeng  of  her  partye. 
.  .  .  Semblably  ben  they  that  poppe  them  self  &  make  them  to 
seme  fayr  for  to  brynge  other  to  synne/  And  it  is  grete  merueylle 
how  they  presume  to  deffeate  and  altere  that  whiche  god  hath 
made/  &  moche  lewde  is  the  woman  the  whiche  weneth  to  make 
her  more  fair  than  god  hath  made  her."  2 

Servants  owe  their  masters  honor,  truth,  faithfulness,  obei- 
sance, diligence,  and  patience.  Parents  should  teach  their 
children  good  manners  and  the  doctrines  of  the  church. 

"[Children]  owen  tobeye  to  theyr  parents  lyke  as  thappostle 
saith  to  the  Ephesiens  the  vj  chapytre.  Filij  obedite  parentibus 
vfis/  That  is  to  saye.  ye  chyldren  obeye  ye  vnto  your  parents.  .  .  . 
More  oil  the  chyldren  ought  to  loue  parfyghtly  theyr  fader  and 
moder.  and  in  nede  socoure  them  lyke  as  sapion  dyde.  the  whiche 
put  hym  self  in  peryll  of  deth  for  to  saue  his  fader/  And  also  Eneas 
for  to  delyuer  his  fader  passed  by  the  myddys  of  his  enemyes." » 

The  importance  of  the  subject  matter  of  this  short  treatise 
is  self-evident.  It  may  be  noted  that  one  element  of  the 
typical  family  book  is  lacking,  that  is,  marriage  from  a 
legal  point  of  view.  This  is  supplied  in  full  by  William  Har- 
rington's Comendadons  of  matrymony,  which  was  not  only 
the  first  book  of  the  kind  of  entirely  English  origin  but  also 
the  first  which  made  marriage  and  married  life  its  whole 
subject  and  treated  it  with  something  like  satisfactory  com- 

^  Caxton,  op.  cit.,  cap.  V.  •  Ihid.,  cap.  XII. 

«  Ibid.,  cap.  VI. 


THE  DOMESTIC  CONDUCT  BOOK  107 

pleteness.  It  was  published  in  1528  and  was  probably 
reprinted  but  twice.^  The  gap  between  this  book  and  Cax- 
ton's  does  not  seem  so  great  when  we  consider  the  small 
number  of  books  published  in  those  years;  nevertheless,  I 
do  not  j&nd  any  evidence  of  a  connection  between  the  two 
except  the  general  subject  matter.  Harrington's  book  is 
not  long,  being  only  forty-two  pages,^  but  it  is  extremely 
meaty,  and  on  the  subject  of  the  form  of  the  marriage  cere- 
mony and  the  legal  requirements  and  impediments  of  matri- 
mony, it  contains  more  definite  information  than  all  the 
others  put  together.  It  is  divided  into  four  parts :  the  law- 
fulness and  godliness  of  matrimony,  the  method  of  lawfully 
contracting  it,  the  impediments,  and  some  general  rules  for 
the  conduct  of  the  family.  Parts  two  and  three  are  espe- 
cially instructive,  but  as  the  essential  points  of  each  have 
already  been  quoted  and  discussed,^  further  mention  here 
is  unnecessary.  The  fourth  section  contains  rules  for  the 
conduct  of  married  life,  but  it  is  too  brief  and  of  too  general 
a  character  to  be  of  value  except  as  exhibiting  this  feature 
of  the  typical  domestic  book.  It  recommends  (1)  love, 
peaceful  dwelling,  faithfulness  (adultery  being  a  cause  for 
separation  a  mensa  et  thoro) ;  (2)  mutual  help  and  economy 
in  household  affairs;  (3)  the  proper  upbringing  of  chil- 
dren and  the  observance  of  religious  practices.  As  the 
"commendations"  given  in  part  one  contain  the  substance, 
in  brief,  of  many  later  books,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  quote 
the  most  important. 

^  Ames'  Typog.  Antiq.  (ed.  1810-19),  III,  105,  describes  an  undated 
edition  by  Jno.  Rastell.  The  copy  I  have  used  is  by  Jno.  Skot  and 
seems  to  be  totally  unknown.    Redman  reprinted  the  book  later. 

2  See  bibliography  for  size  and  number  of  pages  of  books  mentioned 
in  this  chapter. 

3  See  above,  pp.  39  ff .  and  72  ff .,  respectively.  On  account  of  the 
importance  of  part  two,  I  quote  at  greater  length  from  it  in  Appendix 
C,  below. 


108  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

"Many  thynges  ben  fonden  as  well  in  the  olde  lawe  as  in  the 
newe,  whiche  dothe  gretely  comende  ye  state  &  ordre  of  matry- 
mony.  Fyrst  in  ye  olde  lawe  it  is  comended  of  the  dygnyte  of  ye 
maker  therof  whiche  was  almyghty  god  him  seK.  The  place  where 
it  was  made  which  was  paradyce.  The  tyme  of  ye  makynge  therof 
whiche  was  the  tyme  of  innocensie  afore  there  were  ony  synne/ 
the  antyquite  of  it/  for  it  was  afore  all  other  ordres.  The  contynu- 
aunce  of  it/  for  it  hath  ben  contynued  frome  ye  begynnynge  of  the 
worlde  in  euery  lawe/  in  euery  maner  of  people/  in  euery  Cyte  and 
in  euery  tyme.  ...  In  the  newe  law  it  is  comended  and  confirmed 
by  oure  sauyoure  cryste.  .  .  .  Also  in  that  yt  is  ordeyned  to  be 
one  of  the.  vii  sacramentes  of  holy  chyrche.  .  .  .  For  it  betok- 
eneth  fyrst  the  unyte  whiche  is  bytwyxte  god  and  the  nature  of 
man  .  .  .  Secondely  it  betokenethe  the  unyon  of  Cryste  to  his 
chyrche  catholycall.  Thyrdely  it  betokeneth  ye  unyon  of  Chryste 
to  mannes  soule."  ^ 

The  next  book  to  appear  in  English  was  a  work  entirely 
devoted  to  the  government  of  the  household,  neglecting 
the  ceremony  of  marriage  altogether.  This  was  Richard 
Whitford's  A  werke  for  housholders,  published  first  in  1531, 
and  reprinted  in  1532,  1533,  and  1537.^  It  is  a  small  book, 
fifty-six  pages,  to  which  is  added  a  "breue  and  shorte 
monicyon  or  counseyle  of  the  cure  and  gouernaunce  of  a 
household,"  translated  from  an  epistle  of  Bernard  Sylvester, 
seven  pages  in  length.  This  book  is  of  an  intensely  religious 
character,  its  rules  for  the  conduct  of  the  household  beiug, 
for  the  most  part,  directions  for  prayer  and  an  explanation 
of  the  creed  and  the  commandments.  For  this  reason,  it  is 
not  strictly  of  the  type  we  are  following,  but  it  seems  worth 
a  passing  notice  as  showing  the  combiaation  of  household  and 
religious  affairs  in  a  type  of  book  which  soon  became  preva- 
lent but  which  we  shall  have  to  omit  from  our  study  here- 
after.    Whitford's  work,  though  not  divided  into  sections, 

^  Harrington,  op.  dt.,  f.  Aii  h,  ff. 
2  D.N.B.  gives  1530  and  1538. 


THE   DOMESTIC   CONDUCT   BOOK  109 

may  be  summarized:  (1)  the  proper  employment  of  the  day, 
including  prayers  upon  rising,  "some  certeyn  occupacyon 
that  may  be  profytable,  and  euer  to  auoyde  ydlenes  ye 
mother  and  nurse  of  all  synne  &  euyll,"  and  a  review  of  the 
day  with  prayer  upon  retiring;  (2)  text  and  explanation  at 
some  length  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  creed,  the  ten  com- 
mandments (two  of  which  are  omitted  and  others  confused), 
the  principal  sins,  the  five  wits,  and  the  works  of  mercy; 
(3)  a  form  for  confession  of  sin,  which  should  be  approached 
"with  a  meke  &  sobre  count enaunce  and  behauyour  (For  it 
is  no  laughynge  game),'*  the  confession  being  a  rehearsal 
of  the  seven  deadly  sins  performed  in  full;  (4)  a  table  of 
the  principal  things  in  the  life  of  Christ. 

Of  all  this,  the  declaration  of  the  ten  commandments  is 
the  only  part  we  need  stop  for,  and  here  I  will  merely  set 
forth  a  few  passages  which  are  interesting  for  one  reason 
or  another.  The  first  commandment  includes  a  short 
discussion  of  witchcraft,  in  which  the  difiiculty  of  convincing 
"simple  people"  of  its  evil  is  quaintly  described.  "Syr," 
they  say,  ''we  meane  well/  and  we  do  byleue  well  &  we 
thyke  it  a  good  &  a  charitable  dede  to  hele  a  sycke  persone/ 
or  a  sycke  beest/  and  trewth  they  saye/  but  yet  it  is  neyther 
good  ne  charytable  to  heale  them  by  unlawfuU  meane."  ^ 
Under  the  second  commandment,  the  discussion  of  which 
rambles  far  from  its  original  subject  of  swearing,  we  find 
some  interesting  notes  on  the  discipline  of  children.  The 
following  naively  penitential  verse  is  given  for  the  child 
to  recite  at  the  end  of  the  day: 

"  Yf  I  lye/  backebyte/  or  stele 
Yf  I  curse/  scorne/  mocke/  or  swere 
Yf  I  chyde/  fyght/  stryue/  or  threte 
Then  am  I  worthy  to  be  bete 
Good  mother  or  maystresse  myne 
*  Whitford,  op.  dt.,  Cii. 


110  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 


Yf  ony  of  these  nyne 
I  trespace  to  your  knowynge 
With  a  newe  rodde  and  a  fyne 
Erly  naked  before  I  dyne 
Amende  me  with  a  scourgynge."  ^ 


4^. 


Nevertheless,  Whitford  maintains,  children  should  be  cor- 
rected "with  a  mylde  and  softe  spirit,"  and  should  be  in- 
formed that  ''you  do  the  coreccyon  agaynst  your  mynde/ 
compelled  thervnto  by  coscience/  and  requyre  them  to 
put  you  no  more  vnto  suche  labour  &  payne.  For  yf  thou 
do  (say  you)  you  must  suffre  parte  of  the  payne  with  me  and 
therfore  you  shall  now  haue  experience  and  profe  what 
payne  it  is  vnto  us  both."  ^  The  third  commandment, 
on  keeping  the  Sabbath,  warns  the  reader  against  "suche 
vanytes  as  comimely  ben  vsed/  that  is  to  saye/  berebay- 
tynge  &  bulbaytynge/  fodball/  tenesplayng/  bowlynge" 
and  the  ''  unlawfull  games  of  cardynge/  dycyng/  closshynge/ 
with  suche  other  vnthryfty  pastymes/  or  rather  losetymes."' 
Under  the  sixth  commandment,  on  the  avoidance  of  adultery, 
there  is  an  interesting  comment  upon  private  unwitnessed 
contracts  of  marriage.  "It  is  a  great  ieopardy  therfore," 
says  Whitford,  "to  make  ony  suche  contractes/  specyally 
amonge  them  selfe  secretely  alone.  .  .  .  And  by  cause  the 
chyrche  can  not  openly  knowe  that  thynge  that  was  spoken 
and  done  in  pryuyte/  they  be  thought  and  supposed  so  to 
lyue  as  lawfully  in  maryage."  ^ 

The  second  part  of  the  book,  translated  by  Whitford 
from  Sylvester,  is  a  treatise  of  practical  advice  of  a  general 
nature,  particularly  for  a  farming  household,  in  the  style 
of  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon.  "Trust  hym  rather  for  thy 
frende/  that  somwhat  doth  for  the:  than  hym  that  dothe 
offre  hym  selfe:  sayenge.  I  am  youres  in  all  I  can  and  may. 

1  Whitford,  op.  ciL,  Dii.  »  Ibid.,  Div. 

*  lUd.,  Dii  b.  *  lUd.,  Eiii  b. 


THE   DOMESTIC   CONDUCT   BOOK  111 

For  in  wordes  is  great  plenty  of  frendes";  or  again,  in  a 
different  strain,  ''Make  your  byldynges  rather  for  nede 
than  for  pleasure.  For  the  appetyte  of  buyldynge  for 
pleasure  shal  neuer  haue  nede/  tyll  pouerte  teche  wytte 
somwhat  to  late.  Sel  not  vnto  great  persones/  but  rather 
for  lesse  vnto  ye  lower  persones."  ^ 

We  must  now  turn  to  several  books  of  continental  author- 
ship, two  of  which  preceded  both  Harrington's  and  Whit- 
ford's.  As  these  two  were  not  translated  into  English 
until  some  time  later  and  do  not  seem  to  have  influenced 
either  of  the  books  just  discussed,  I  have  delayed  considera- 
tion of  them  until  this  point.  The  first  is  Vives'  De  Insti- 
tutione  Foeminae  Christianae  in  1523.  The  author  was  a 
Spaniard  but  was  also  identified  with  England.  He  had 
already  received  a  fellowship  from  Oxford  in  1517,  and  upon 
the  publication  of  his  book,  he  visited  the  country  and  was 
made  Doctor  of  Civil  Law  by  the  same  university.  The 
second  work  is  that  of  Erasmus,  who  after  several  visits  to 
England,  published  at  Basel  his  Matrimonii  Christiani 
Institutio  in  1526,  a  book  of  considerable  importance,  although 
I  have  found  only  one  mention  of  it  in  any  later  writing.^ 
Among  these  continental  books,  I  must  include,  for  the  sake 
of  convenience,  the  one  classical  example  that  was  trans- 

1  Whitford,  Hii  and  Hii  h. 

*  Becon  and  Milton  both  refer  en  passant  to  Erasmus'  views  on 
marriage  and  divorce.  Becon  mentions  both  the  Annotationes  in 
Novum  Testamentum  and  the  Matrimonii  Encomium.  Milton  mentions 
two  books,  without  naming  them;  one  of  which  must  be  the  Institution 
Erasmus'  Matrimonii  Encomium,  1518,  translated  into  English  by  Rich- 
ard Taverner  under  the  title  of  A  ryght  frutefull  Epystle,  etc.,  c.  1536, 
is  worth  mention  only  because  it  seems  to  have  escaped  notice  alto- 
gether in  the  biographies  of  Erasmus.  It  is  merely  a  personal  letter  to 
a  cousin  urging  him  to  marry.  The  bare  facts  of  its  publication  may  be 
found  in  the  Bibliotheca  Erasmina  published  by  the  BibUotheque  de 
rUniversit^  de  I'Etat  (Gand,  1893).     See  also  D.  N.  B.  under  Taverner. 


112  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

lated  into  English.  This  is  Xenophon's  work,  translated 
by  Gentian  Hervet  in  1532  under  the  title  of  Xenophon's 
Treatise  of  an  Houshold,  the  original  of  which  was  known  to 
Vives  and  mentioned  by  him  in  the  introduction  of  his  De 
Institutione.  ^  The  last  foreign  book  of  this  period  is  Bul- 
linger's  Christen  state  of  Matrimonye,  translated  under  that 
title  from  the  German  by  Coverdale  in  1541.^  Of  the  orig- 
inals of  these  four  books,  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they 
had  any  influence  or  not,  but  my  own  opinion  is  that  they 
had  practically  none  at  all.^ 

Erasmus'  Matrimonii  Christiani  Institutio  was  never 
translated  into  English  and  seems  not  to  have  been  repub- 
lished even  in  Latin  until  1650.  It  is,  nevertheless,  a  very 
thorough  study  of  the  office  and  nature  of  marriage,  con- 
sisting of  442  pages,  but  it  slights  the  domestic  side  of  the 
institution,  discussing  only  the  general  relations  of  husband 
and  wife.  The  impediments  to  marriage  are  treated  at 
great  length.^  Erasmus  takes  the  classics  and  the  Christian 
emperors  rather  than  the  church  fathers  as  general  author- 
ities on  matrimonial  affairs,  but  his  views  do  not  seem  to 
/-.^differ  greatly  from  those  of  Catholicism. 
(  >  Vives'  book  was  translated,  under  the  title  of  Instruc- 
'  Hybns  of  a  Christian  Woman,  by  Richard  Hyrde  in  1540, 
and  was  republished  twice  in  1541,  and  in  1557,  1585,  1592, 
besides  an  undated  edition  somewhere  within  this  time. 
It  consists  of  310  pages.  In  the  preface,  which  is  addressed 
to    Queen  Catherine,  Vives    described    the  book    as   one 

^  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  mention  of  the  original,  nor  to 
ascertain  its  title  or  date;  but  see  below,  p.  114,  n.  1. 

'  Mention  should  be  made  somewhere  of  the  fact  that  Thomas 
More  touched  upon  marriage  in  his  Utopia.  He  recommends  a  greater 
freedom  of  divorce,  by  allowing  it  to  be  obtained  by  common  consent 
of  husband  and  wife;  but  his  discussion  of  marital  problems  is  too  brief 
(a  few  sentences  only)  to  be  of  any  importance.  I  have  seen  no  refer- 
ences to  it  in  later  books.  *  See  above,  p.  9,  n.  2^ 


THE  DOMESTIC  CONDUCT  BOOK  113 

"of  the  information  and  bringing  vp  of  a  Christian  woman:  a 
matter  neuer  yet  entreated  of  any  man,  among  so  great  plentie, 
and  variety  of  wits  and  writers.  For  Zenophon  and  Aristotell 
giuing  rules  of  house-keeping  and  Plato  making  precepts  of  order- 
ing the  common  weal,  spake  many  things  appertayning  vnto  the 
womans  office  &  duty:  &  S.  Cipri,  S.  Hierome,  S.  Ambrose,  <fe 
S.  Augustine,  haue  intreted  of  Maids,  &  Widows,  but  in  such  wise, 
that  they  appere  rather  to  exhort  and  counsaile  the  vnto  some 
kinde  of  lining,  than  to  instruct  &  teach  them."  * 

The  book  is  a  practical  treatise  of  every  phase  of  woman's 
life,  divided  into  three  parts,  dealing  with  maids,  wives, 
and  widows  respectively;  but  with  the  exception  of  two 
chapters,  entitled  "What  the  wife  ought  to  do  at  home" 
and  "Of  Children,  and  the  charge  and  care  about  them,"  the 
instruction  is  devoted  to  woman  alone  rather  than  to  the 
family  or  the  home. 

The  translation  of  Xenophon's  little  household  work, 
made  in  1532  by  Hervet  at  the  instance  of  Geoffrey  Pole, 
was,  like  Vives'  book,  popular  enough  to  run  into  further 
editions  in  1534(?),2 1540,  1544,  1554,  1557,  1573,  and  1592. 
It  is  but  105  pages  and  discusses  household  matters  only, 
but  being  the  first  book  in  English  entirely  on  housekeep- 
ing, it  is  important  in  directing  attention  to  marriage  as  a 
state  of  life  rather  than  as  a  single  act.  The  form  is  that  of 
a  dialogue  within  a  dialogue,  in  which  Socrates,  reporting 
a  conversation  with  Ischomachus,  instructs  Critobulus  as 
to  domestic  and  farm  economics.  The  chief  features  of 
household  government,  as  described  by  Ischomachus,  are 
the  woman's  duties  within  the  house,  and  the  man's  duties 

1  Vives,  op.  ciLf  p.  1. 

'  There  is  some  doubt  as  to  whether  there  was  an  edition  in  1534. 
Ames  mentions  one  such,  but  he  may  be  referring  to  the  1544  edition, 
which  has  the  date  1534  on  the  title  page  but  the  correct  one  in  the 
colophon  at  the  end.    See  also  D.N.B. 


114  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

without,  in  the  care  of  the  fields  and  workmen  and  the  study 
of  husbandry.  Marriage  itself  is  not  discussed  at  all,  except 
in  the  relationship  of  husband  and  wife,  and  this,  together 
with  the  fact  the  household  described  is  that  of  a  simple 
Greek  husbandman,  removes  the  book  to  some  extent  from 
the  type  we  are  investigating. 

Of  the  continental  books,  Coverdale's  Christen  state  of 
Matrimonye,  from  BuUinger's  original,  in  1541,  is  by  far  the 
most  important  both  for  its  content  and  its  influence.  The 
extent  of  the  latter  is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  seven  more 
editions  of  it  appeared  by  1575.^  BuUinger  discusses  all 
the  important  points  treated  by  LeGrand  and  Harrington, 

1  There  are  several  peculiar  circumstances  connected  with  this 
book.  Foxe  {Acts  and  Mon.,  IV,  679)  mentions  the  Christian  state  of 
Matrimony  as  prohibited  by  ecclesiastical  proclamation  in  1531.  This 
mention  is  misleading,  as  the  original  proclamation  (see  Wilkins, 
Concilia,  III,  720)  gives  the  title  as  Oeconomia  Christiana,  which,  if  it 
refers  to  Bullinger's  book  at  all,  must  be  taken  to  indicate  the  original 
version,  since  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Coverdale's  translation  first 
appeared  in  1541.  (In  the  same  list,  is  given  Matrimonium  Johannis 
Tindall,  which  if  ever  published,  has  been  since  lost  sight  of.  It  is  not 
mentioned  in  biographies  of  Tindale,  nor  is  it  included  in  the  1573 
edition  of  his  complete  works.)  The  Christen  state  of  Matrimonye 
became  confused  with  The  Golden  Book  of  Matrimony,  1542,  attributed 
to  Becon.  The  truth  is  that  the  two  are  really  the  same  book  in  dif- 
ferent dress.  Becon  wrote  a  preface  for  the  Christen  state  (after  its 
first  appearance),  and  some  printer  changed  the  name  of  the  book  and 
advertised  Becon  as  the  author  in  order  to  increase  its  sale.  In  this 
disguise,  it  was  published  in  1542,  1543,  and  1546;  in  its  proper  form, 
it  appeared  in  1541,  twice  in  1543,  twice  in  1552,  and  in  1575.  (See 
Ames,  Typog.  Antiq.,  I,  497  fif.)  There  are  some  variations  in  the  dif- 
erent  editions.  Becon's  own  book.  The  Bake  of  Matrimony,  must  not 
be  confused  with  this  one. 

Bullinger's  book  gives  considerable  evidence  of  a  connection  with  the 
divorce  of  Henry  VIII.  The  following  sentence  seems  to  refer  directly 
to  the  royal  case:  "What  is  the  cause  of  all  this  dissention,  cruel  per- 
secution, tyrrany,  cruel  laws  .  .  .  but  only  the  blind  ignorance  of 
unlearned  rulers,  which  measure  all  things  after  their  own  fond  fleshy 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  '  115 

and  although  his  book  presents  Httle  that  is  new  and  lacks 
some  of  the  definite  information  given  by  Harrington,  it 
goes  into  the  various  aspects  of  matrimony  in  greater  detail 
and  at  greater  length  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  The  dis- 
cussion of  domestic  life  occupies  at  least  one-third  of  the 
author's  attention  and  establishes  this  section  as  a  feature 
of  this  type  of  book  in  somewhat  the  importance  it  deserves; 
and  although  the  legal  and  ceremonial  aspects  of  the  sub- 
ject still  occupy  more  than  their  proper  share  of  the  whole, 
it  seems  fair  to  say  that  the  full  form  and  content  of  the 
typical  family  book  are  here  first  established.  Altogether, 
it  runs  to  156  pages,  the  substance  of  which  may  be  epito- 
mized as  follows:  (1)  eulogy  of  marriage  and  general  ex- 
planation of  domestic  life,  with  warning  to  parents  not  to 
force  their  children  to  marry  against  their  will  or  before 
they  reach  a  proper  age;  (2)  tables  of  consanguinity  and  affin- 
ity with  remarks  thereupon;  (3)  general  advice  in  regard 
to  cleanness  of  life  and  avoidance  of  carnal  sin;  (4)  account 
of  the  marriage  ceremony  and  feast,  with  warning  against 
excess;  (5)  household  relations  of  husband  and  wife;  (6) 
housekeeping,  servants,  children,  education,  and  apparel; 
(7)  divorce.  On  the  whole,  this  treatise  is  one  of  the  most 
broad-minded,  unbiased,  and  modern  in  principle  of  any 
before  Perkins'  Christian  Oeconomie.  Marriage  is  defined 
as  the  "yoking  together  of  one  man  &  one  woman/  whom 
god  hath  coupled  according  to  his  worde/  with  the  consent 
of  the  both/  from  thence  forth  to  dwell  together/  ...  to 
the  intente  that  they  maye  bring  forth  childre  in  the  feare  of 
him/  that  they  maye  auoyde  whordome/  and  that  (accord- 
ing to  gods  good  pleasure)  the  one  maye  helpe  &  confort 
the  tother."  ^    A  mate  is  to  be  chosen  for  true  riches  of 

affections  .  .  .  and  would    have  their    own  carnal  wishes  to    stand 
in  the  stead,  yea,  rather  to  be  above  God  and  his  lawyers." 
*  BuUinger,  op.  dt.,  f.  iii  6. 


116  '  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

mind,  body,  and  temporal  substance;  "yf  beside  these/ 
thou  fyndest  other  greate  riches  (bewtye  and  such  Hke  giftes) 
and  comest  godly  and  honestlye  by  them/  thou  hast  the 
more  to  thanke  God  for."  ^  Seven  chapters  are  devoted 
to  the  affairs  of  the  household,  in  which  much  sensible 
advice  is  contained.  In  the  one  on  cohabitation,  it  is 
pointed  out  that  mutual  love  and  forbearance  are  necessary, 
that  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  house,  and  that  the 
wife  should  be  obedient  to  him.  The  following  chapter 
gives  suggestions  for  the  maintenance  of  love  and  faithful- 
ness on  the  part  of  both.  Two  chapters  are  devoted  to 
housekeeping,  one  to  children,  and  one  to  the  conduct  of 
maidens.  The  English  primers  are  recommended  for  the 
instruction  of  children,  after  which  they  should  study  Latin 
and  Greek  authors,  ''noble  histories,"  and  "the  tongues," 
and  should  read  and  memorize  parts  of  the  Bible.  Travel 
is  spoken  of  as  beneficial  to  young  men.  '    "^ 

For  the  sake  of  convenience,  we  must  mention  here  two 
somewhat  later  translations  of  continental  writings.  One 
is  The  Commendation  of  Matrimony  by  David  Clapham 
from  the  Latin  of  H.  C.  Agrippa,  in  1545;  and  the  other. 
The  office  and  dicetie  of  an  Husband,'^  by  Thomas  Paynell 
from  the  Latin  of  Vives,  in  1553.  The  former  is  a  very 
small  and  unimportant  book  and  needs  no  further  notice. 
Vives'  book,  410  pages,  a  companion  volume  to  his  De  In- 
stitutione,  is  a  pretty  solid  and  thoroughgoing  presentation 
of  married  life  in  all  its  aspects;  for,  despite  the  title,  it 
discusses  the  whole  subject  and  even  gives  more  attention 
to  the  wife  than  to  the  husband.     Nevertheless,  there  is 

*  Bullinger,  op.  cit.,  f.  xivi. 

*  The  date  of  the  original  is  not  known.  Wood,  who  includes  Vives 
in  his  Oxonienses,  did  not  know  this  book  at  all.  A  description  of  it 
may  be  found  in  Brydges,  Censura  Liter  aria,  IX,  25.  The  date  of 
the  translation  is  settled  in  the  article  on  Paynell  in  D.N.B. 


THE  DOMESTIC  CONDUCT  BOOK  117 

practically  nothing  new  brought  forth,  and  the  value  of  the 
book  is  greatly  decreased  by  faulty  arrangement  and  con- 
stant digression.  The  chief  feature  of  interest  is  that,  al- 
though the  writer  was  undoubtedly  a  member  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  the  book  does  not  present  the  low  ideal  of  mar- 
riage held  generally  by  that  body.  On  the  contrary,  Vives' 
attitude  is  broad  and  temperate  and  his  ideals  are  high; 
he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  emphasize  the  importance  of 
mental  rather  than  physical  agreement  in  marriage.  The 
greater  part  of  the  book  is  on  married  life,  although  it 
opens  with  the  usual  stereotyped  praise  of  matrimony  and 
advice  on  the  choice  of  a  wife. 

Meanwhile,  the  divorce  case  of  Henry  VIII  and  Catherine 
had  excited  almost  world-wide  controversy,  which  had 
started  as  early  as  1528.  This,  however,  was  largely  con- 
fined to  the  question  of  marriage  with  a  deceased  wife's  sister 
and  the  power  of  the  Pope  in  dispensing  with  the  recog- 
nized impediments  to  marriage.^  The  general  position  of 
the  Church  of  England  and  its  relations  to  Rome  were,  as 
has  been  shown,  at  this  time  somewhat  obscure.  In  order 
to  place  these  clearly  before  the  world,  the  King,  having 
accomplished  his  immediate  project,  caused  to  be  compiled 
two  books,  in  which  he  took  occasion  to  set  forth  authorita- 
tive views  on  matrimony  as  held  by  the  established  church. 
These  are  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,  popularly 
known  as  The  Bishops'  Book,  in  1537,2  and  The  Necessary 
Doctrine  and  Erudition  for  any  Christian  Man,^  sometimes 
known  as  The  King's  Book  from  the  fact  that  he  personally 

1  An  account  of  this  controversy  and  the  English  writing  concerned 
in  it,  is  given  in  Appendix  A,  below. 

2  Wilkins,  History  of  Divorce  and  Remarriage,  p.  136,  dates  this 
book  "about  1543-4."  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  1537 
is  the  correct  date. 

'  The  substance  of  both  of  these  books  is  given  in  Blunt,  Doctrine  of 
the  Church  of  England. 


^ 


118  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

revised  it,  in  1543.^  The  latter  was  simply  a  recasting  of 
its  predecessor  into  a  less  ecclesiastical  form  by  the  Convoca- 
tion of  Canterbury.  Popularly,  it  was  the  more  impor- 
tant of  the  two,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  ran  into  at 
least  seven  editions  in  the  year  of  its  publication,^  but  the 
Institution  was  considered  by  the  King  and  the  church  as 
the  more  authoritative.  This  treatise  was  compiled  by  a 
royal  commission  of  the  two  archbishops,  the  nineteen 
bishops,  eight  archdeacons,  and  seventeen  other  doctors 
of  divinity  and  law,  and  was  intended  to  serve  as  a  hand- 
book for  the  clergy  of  the  realm  from  which  to  instruct 
the  people.  It  was  translated  into  Latin  and  sent  by  the 
King  to  the  Diet  of  Spires  in  1543-4  to  represent  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Church  of  England.  The  section  devoted  to 
matrimony,  only  twelve  pages  in  length,  represents  it 
exactly  as  it  was  held  to  be  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  except 
for  the  Pope's  powers  of  dispensation,  and  may  be  taken  as 
expressing  the  attitude  of  the  established  church  from  then 
on,  except  that  by  the  Articles  of  1552  marriage  was  excluded 
from  the  number  of  sacraments.  Despite  the  brevity  of 
treatment,  most  of  the  usual  points  in  regard  to  matrimony 
are  discussed,  viz. :  (1)  the  dignity  and  value  of  marriage,  (2) 
the  original  command  of  God  that  his  people  marry  and 
his  warning  against  trespassing  within  the  forbidden  degrees, 
(3)  marriage  as  signifying  the  union  of  God  and  man  and 
of  Christ  and  the  church,  (4)  Christ's  blessing  upon  mar- 
riage and  his  decree  as  to  divorce,^  (5)  the  parts  of  marriage, 
which  are  the  outward  contract  and  the  inward  blessings 

1  Ames  {Typog.  Antiq.,  I,  441)  mentions  an  edition  of  1542,  but  says 
that  the  book  was  amended  and  enlarged  in  1543.  By  the  edition  of 
1542,  he  must  mean  the  Institution,  since  all  other  evidence  points  to 
1543  as  the  year  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  Necessary  Doctrine. 

2  For  further  account,  see  Neal,  I,  23  ff.,  and  Blunt,  p.  xiv. 

'  Matt.  V,  32,  and  XIX,  9,  allowing  divorce  (i.  e.,  a  mensa  et  thoro) 
for  fornication  only. 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  119 

and  comforts,  (6)  admonition  and  advice  on  married  life, 
(7)  the  nature  of  the  bond,  providing  that  a  lawful  marriage 
cannot  be  broken  but  that  one  discovered  to  have  been 
unlawfully  contracted  is  null  and  void  ab  initio,^  (8)  the 
education  of  children.  It  is  evident  that  this  book  shows 
no  originality  either  in  form  or  substance,  but  the  authority 
under  which  it  was  published,  its  purpose  as  a  handbook 
for  popular  instruction,  and  the  number  of  editions  its  re- 
vised form  ran  into,  show  at  once  its  great  importance  in 
current  thought.  In  later  writing,  however,  I  find  no  men- 
tion made  of  it,  but  this  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  the  church  fathers  and  the  great  BibUcal  scholars  of 
the  German  Reformation  remained  the  ever-present  author- 
ities on  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  almost  no  other  writers 
are  ever  referred  to. 

II.  Puritan  and  Romish  Attitudes  towards 
Marriage 

With  the  Bullinger-Coverdale  book,  the  formative  period 
of  our  type  comes  to  an  end.  In  those  which  follow,  we 
find  no  new  elements  of  any  importance,  although  greater 
detail  of  treatment  is  present  in  many.  Heretofore,  I  have 
made  no  effort  to  classify  the  books  considered  in  accordance 
with  the  wider  religious  movements  of  the  time,  but  it  is 
evident  that  different  viewpoints  are  expressed  in  them. 

^  Wilkins  in  his  discussion  of  this  book  (Hist,  of  Div.,  p.  137),  quotes 
merely  the  passage  that  "the  bond  of  lawful  marriage  is  of  such  sort 
that  it  cannot  be  dissolved  or  broken,  but  by  death  only."  This  by 
itself  is  misleading,  as  it  gives  no  clue  to  the  existence  of  the  fm-ther 
passage  providing  for  the  annulment  of  marriage  due  to  former  impedi- 
ments, in  which  it  is  definitely  expressed  that  "The  Church  may  and 
ought  to  divorce  the  same  persons  so  unlawfully  contracted,  and  de- 
clare that  such  matrimony  is  unlawful,  and  the  bond  thereof  to  be  of 
no  strength  or  efficiency,  because  it  was  never  good  from  the  beginning." 
Blunt,  p.  201. 


120  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

Harrington,  for  instance,  is  thoroughly  Catholic,  even  to 
the  extent  of  considering  marriage  a  sacrament,  and  his 
whole  treatment  is  from  this  point  of  view.  Bullinger,  on 
the  other  hand,  represents  consistently  the  German  reform 
ideas,  which  his  translator  upheld.  A  point  of  controversy 
between  these  two  churches  which  we  have  not  noted  as 
yet  was  in  regard  to  the  marriage  of  priests.  The  Re- 
formers held  that  marriage  was  entirely  an  honorable  state, 
quite  equal  with  the  virginal  life,  and  that  therefore  the  en- 
trance into  holy  orders  was  no  reason  to  exclude  a  man  from 
it;  so  they  favored  the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  especially 
as  the  sexual  vileness  of  the  lives  of  many  of  them  would  be 
thus  remedied.  But  the  CathoUc  Church  and  the  Church 
of  England  held  to  the  belief  of  celibacy  and  preferred  to 
wink  at  existing  immorality  among  the  clergy.  Histori- 
cally, the  thing  went  through  rather  a  ridiculous  course. 
Edward  VI  passed  a  decree  allowing  priests  to  marry,  where- 
upon many  former  mistresses  as  well  as  many  reputable 
women  became  wives;  but  Mary  revoked  this  decree  and 
compelled  the  priests  not  only  to  put  aside  their  newly- 
made  wives  but  to  confess  publicly  that  they  had  been  living 
in  adultery;  and  Elizabeth  also  refused  to  legalize  the  mar- 
riage of  priests  but  overlooked  the  practice  when  it  occurred. 
At  any  rate,  the  question  was  greatly  debated  at  the  time 
and  has  place  in  many  of  the  domestic  books,  as  well  as 
being  the  entire  subject  matter  of  considerable  other  writing. 
But  as  this  dispute  is  somewhat  aside  from  our  real  interest, 
we  cannot  stop  for  further  discussion  of  it. 

The  attitudes  of  the  opposing  parties  in  this  question  orig- 
inated in  their  different  conceptions  of  the  marriage  state, 
which  affected  all  later  writing  in  the  field,  the  Puritans 
following  the  German  ideas,  and  the  Church  of  England 
those  of  Catholicism.  The  supporters  of  the  latter,  although 
they  extolled  marriage  at  great  length,  took  the  attitude 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  121 

that  it  was  a  kind  of  necessary  evil  for  the  propagation  of 
the  race ;  the  Puritans,  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  it  rather 
as  an  honorable  and  natural  society  of  man  and  woman,  of 
which  children  were  the  proper  result  but  not  the  prime  cause. 
We  find  the  new  attitude  in  the  writings  of  both  Tindale 
and  Coverdale,  but  Becon,  writing  about  1562,  seems  to  be 
the  first  to  point  out  the  difference  between  the  orthodox 
and  the  radical  conceptions.^  After  extolling  the  dignity  and 
honor  of  the  marriage  state  and  lamenting  the  abuses  which 
it  had  suffered,  he  says: 

"But  amonge  all  these  aduersaries  and  enemies  of  Matrimonye, 
the  Romanishe  Bishoppe  .  .  .  maye  not  be  passed  ouer  with 
silence:  whiche  .  .  .  hathe  moste  filthely  corrupted,  mangled 
and  defiled  all  the  misteries  of  God,  of  his  holy  worde,  and  blessed  ^ 
Sacramentes:  yet  the  moste  holy  state  of  godly  Matrimony  hathe 
he  moste  vilely  and  moste  wickedly  enbased,  caste  downe  and 
made  ahnoste  of  no  reputation.  No  Turke,  no  Jewe,  no  Saracen,  no 
Infidell,  no  Ethnycke,  no  Heathe,  no  Miscratit,  no,  no  Devill 
hath  at  any  time  so  vilely  and  so  wickedly  taughte  and  written 
of  this  blessed  state  of  honorable  wedlocke:  as  thys  wicked  Bishop 
of  Rome  and  his  adherentes  have  done."  ^ 

Although  Becon's  language  here  may  seem  a  little  ex- 
treme, he  had  good  grounds  for  his  statements.     The  early   f 
church  fathers  were  almost  unanimous  in  their  condemnation    ^— ' 
of  marriage,^  and  even  when  the  purity  of  it  was  admitted, 

1  This  difiference  of  attitude  toward  marriage  accounts  to  a  large 
extent  for  the  difference  in  the  way  woman  was  regarded,  the  Puritan 
conception  being  much  the  higher.    See  below,  pp.  170-171. 

2  Becon,  Boke  of  Matrimony,  in  Worckes,  Ft.  I,  f .  ccccclxxv.  The  evi- 
dence in  proof  of  these  statements,  as  Becon  says  in  another  place, 
"woulde  not  a  litle  not  only  corrupt  the  ayre  but  also  offend  the  eares 
and  myndes  of  the  godly  readers."  Becon's  own  ideas  of  marriage  are 
given  below,  pp.  126-127. 

3  Milton  says  on  this  point:  "It  was  for  many  ages  that  marriage 
lay  in  disgrace  with  most  of  the  ancient  doctors,  as  a  work  of  the  flesh, 
ahnost  a  defilement,  wholly  denied  to  priests,  and  second  time  dia- 


122  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

it  was  with  a  tone  of  apology  or  depreciation.  The  words 
of  St.  Paul,  ''It  is  better  to  marry  than  to  burn,"  expressed 
the  usual  justification  for  marriage,  when  one  was  given. 
St.  Augustine  could  justify  it  only  for  the  propagation  of 
the  race.  Tertullian,  a  married  man  himself,  went  so  far 
as  to  proclaim  that  marriage  must  be  eschewed  although  the 
race  perished  in  consequence.  During  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  the  attitude  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land was  exactly  that  expressed  in  the  LeGrand-Caxton 
book:  marriage  was  for  three  causes,  —  first  and  most  im- 
portant, the  begetting  of  children,  second,  the  avoidance 
of  carnal  sin,  and  third,  mutual  help  and  comfort.  Catholics, 
in  their  turn,  were  quite  ready  to  condenm  the  Puritan 
ideas.  The  Council  of  Trent  anathematized  those  who 
claimed  that  ''  the  marriage  state  is  to  be  placed  above  the 
state  of  viginity,  or  of  celibacy,  and  that  it  is  not  better  and 
more  blessed  to  remain  in  virginity,  or  celibacy,  than  to 
be  united."  ^  In  England  we  find  similar  expression. 
Nicholas  Harpsfield,  writing  in  Queen  Mary's  time  of  con- 
ditions under  Edward  VI,  says:  ''Then  was  the  heretic 
Jovinian's  old  lesson  renewed  that  the  religious  and  virginal 
chaste  life  and  the  life  of  married  men  should  be  alike  re- 
warded. Then  were  Wi cliff's  pestilent  heresies  concern- 
ing marriage  revived.  .  .  .  And  it  was  one  of  the  errors 
and  heresies  of  John  Wicliffe  ...  for  the  marriages  of  priests 
and  other  rehgious  persons,  which  were  made   lawful   by 

suaded  to  all,  as  he  who  reads  Tertullian  or  Jerom  may  see  at  large." 
Prose  Works,  I,  344. 

1  For  references  to  books  on  this  subject  and  brief  notes  thereupon, 
see  Howard,  I,  329.  John  Donne  says  that  the  Catholic  teachers  "in- 
jure the  whole  state  of  Christianity,  when  they  oppose  marriage  and 
chastity  as  though  they  were  incompatible,  and  might  not  consist 
together."  Works,  IV,  22.  He  also  discusses  at  some  length  the  atti- 
tudes of  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches  in  Sermons  LXXXI  and 
LXXXII.  iUd, 


THE   DOMESTIC   CONDUCT   BOOK  123 

act  of  parliament."  ^  Similarly,  even  as  late  as  the  reign 
of  James  I,  when  the  marriage  of  priests  was  again  permitted 
by  law,  a  writer  makes  the  statement,  "Heluidius  stands 
condemned  by  S.  Hierome  and  the  other  Catholike  Doctors, 
for  equalling  the  merit  of  marriage,  with  the  merit  of  vir- 
ginitie,  which  heretical  doctrine  all  the  Doctors  of  Prot- 
estancie  do  also  eagerly  maintaine."  ^ 

The  books  which  follow  Coverdale's  up  to  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  are  almost  entirely  from  the 
Puritans,  who,  being  the  aggressors  in  the  general  reform 
controversy,  maintained  their  cause  against  the  established 
and  royally-protected  church  only  by  continued  agitation. 
In  the  domestic  books,  however,  there  is  little  controversial 
writing,  this  being  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  question 
of  divorce,  as  before  noted.  Indeed,  we  find  that  from  this 
time  on  less  and  less  attention  is  given  to  the  legal  and  cere- 
monial aspects  of  marriage,  and  that  the  social  or  household 
side  of  it  is  more  and  more  developed,  until  in  such  books 
as  Carters  Christian  Commonwealth,  Gouge's  Domestical 
Duties,  and  others,  the  former  subject  is  either  omitted  .^ 
altogether  or  but  very  shghtly  touched  upon.  The  ten-*i  V^V 
dency  of  the  Puritans  to  ignore  or  to  avoid  discussion  of  the 
annulment  of  marriage  through  impediments,  also  lessened 
the  attention  to  the  legal  side  of  marriage  by  removing  the  j  /A^ 
largest  field  for  explanation  and  debate  that  had  ever 
encumbered  the  question.  V> 

The  cause  of  the  Puritan  writing  seems  to  have  been  more 
a  sincere  effort  to  reform  the  evil  practices  of  the  time  than 
a  desire  to  wage  a  war  of  words  upon  the  Church  of  England, 
although  the  latter  element  contributed.  It  is  diffcult 
to  tell  from  the  writings  of  religious  persons,  especially  from 
those  of  the  straight-laced  Puritans,  just  what  the  social 

^  Harpsfield,  Pretended  Divorce,  p.  274. 
2  O.  A.,  The  Uncasing  of  Heresie,  p.  49. 


iJ-tl' 


124  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

conditions  of  England  were;  but  it  seems  pretty  clear  that 
marriage  was  not  looked  upon  then  as  it  is  now  as  the  pleas- 
antest  and  most  profitable  form  of  life.  There  were  several 
causes  for  this.  First,  a  marriage  was  seldom  of  the  young 
people's  making,  but  was  arranged  and  often  performed  for 
them  by  their  parents  before  they  came  to  years  of  discre- 
tion and  many  times  while  they  were  infants  in  arms,  as 
has  been  already  shown.^  The  family  books  all  contain 
a  discussion  of  whether  or  not  children  should  marry  with- 
out their  parents'  consent,  and  are  pretty  well  agreed  that 
they  should  not,  even  though  they  were  of  age.  Through 
contracts  fooUshly  made  by  children  or  ambitiously  made 
for  them  by  their  parents,  much  unhappiness  and  many 
unsuitable  marriages  occurred.  Thus,  the  marriage  state 
itself  was  actually,  on  the  average,  not  nearly  so  happy  as 
it  is  today.  Secondly,  according  to  orthodox  ideas  and 
teaching,  married  life  was  worldly  and  imperfect  at  best; 
and  from  the  point  of  view  of  public  opinion,  a  single  life 
of  immorality  was  not  only  not  condemned  in  the  slightest, 
but  was  openly  extolled;  so  that  between  church  and  laity, 
marriage  had  little  ground  to  stand  on  as  a  worthy  institu- 
tion. Thirdly,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  entire  literature 
of  the  period,  except  that  based  on  the  ideals  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  woman,  either  by  nature  or  training  or  both, 
was  hot  a  Uttle  inferior  to  man;  so  that  the  average  man 
preferred  an  occasional  mistress  to  a  permanent  wife.^ 

Passages  illustrative  of  these  points  may  be  found  in 
practically  all  the  domestic  books  of  the  time,  as  well  as 
in  other  writing.  One  author,  candidly  comparing  married 
and  single  life,  says: 

"He  therefore  that  would  know  the  difference  betwixt  the 
married,  and  the  single  life,  shall  neither  finde  the  one  to  be  abso- 
lute good,  nor  the  other  to  be  altogether  euill:  but  herein  he  shall 

^  See  above,  p.  14,  jBf. 

'  For  discussion  of  this  point,  see  below,  Chap.  V. 


THE   DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  125 

see  the  difference  chiefely  to  consist,  that  the  inconueniences  of  the 
one  may  be  remedied  when  a  man  wil,  the  miseries  of  the  other 
remaine  vncurable;  which  as  they  are  many,  so  it  is  not  possible 
to  recken  them  vp."  ^ 

Becon,  both  in  the  preface  written  for  Coverdale's  book  and 
in  his  own  Boke  of  Matrimony,  devotes  a  good  deal  of  space 
to  existing  conditions.  We  have  already  noted  his  ideas 
on  the  influence  of  the  Catholic  Church.  ^  On  the  results 
of  the  forced  marriages  among  noblemen's  children,  he  has 
the  following  interesting  passage: 

"This  kinde  of  marryeng  hath  euer  bene  detested.  .  .  .  And 
not  without  a  cause.  For  whan  they  come  once  vnto  the  perfec- 
tion of  age,  and  see  other  whome  they  coulde  finde  in  theyr  harte 
to  fansie  and  loue  better,  than  many  of  them  beginne  to  hate  one 
another  .  .  .  and  curse  theyr  parentes  euen  vnto  the  pitte  of 
hel  for  the  coupHng  of  them  together.  Than  seeke  they  all  means 
possible  to  bee  diuorced  one  from  another.  But  if  it  bee  so,  that 
they  remayne  styll  together,  what  frowning,  ouerwharting,  scolding, 
and  chiding,  is  there  betwene  them,  so  that  the  whole  house  is  filled 
full  of  those  tragedies  eue  vnto  the  toppe.  .  .  .  What  a  wycked 
and  hellyke  life  is  this!  The  baser  sorte  of  people  seeth  this  vnquiet 
life,  that  is  vsed  among  the  Gentilmen  and  theyr  wyues,  .  .  .  than 
go  they  home,  and  if  anye  thinge  (bee  it  neuer  so  lytle)  displeaseth 
them,  streight  they  are  together  by  the  eares  with  their  wiues,  so 
that  shortly  after  the  whole  towne  is  in  a  rore.  .  .  .  What  is  the 
orygynall  cause  of  all  these  tragicall  and  bloudy  dissencions,  but 
only  the  couetous  affection  of  those  parentes  whyche  for  lucres 
sake  so  wickedly  bestow  theyr  children  in  theyr  youth  and  yoke 
them  with  such  as  they  can  not  favoure  in  theyr  age."  »      ,^ 

*  A  Discovrse  of  the  Married  and  Single  Life,  f .  A8  5. 
'  See  above,  p.  121. 

'  Becon,  Worckes,  Pt.  I,  f.  ccccclxiiii.  Compare  the  sentiment  ex- 
pressed in  How  a  Man  may  Choose  a  Good  Wife,  I,  1: 

"This  'tis  to  marry  children  when  they're  young, 
I  said  as  much  at  first,  that  such  young  brats 
Would  'gree  together  e'en  like  dogs  and  cats." 


126  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

Bullinger,  on  the  immorality  of  the  time,  says: 

"Amonge  other  greuous  synnes  &  shameles  blasphemies/ 
which  in  this  last  euell  and  perelous  tyme  haue  sore  increaced 
(helas  therfore)  &  preuayled  into  a  great  nobre.  This  is  not  the 
leest.  I  meane  aduoutrye  with  shameles  whordome/  and  all 
maner  of  unclenesse  in  vayne  wordes  and  unchaist  workes.  All 
this  now  commeth/  because  that  such  vyces  beare  nomore  theyr 
owne  right  names/  and  therfore  doth  no  man  esteme  them  as  they 
are  in  them  selues  and  in  the  sight  off  God.  The  bloudy  murtherer 
...  is  called  a  good  bold  ma  of  his  handes.  ...  To  be  dronke/ 
is  to  be  mery/  To  commytte  whordome/  is  called  as  much  as  to 
exercise  the  worke  of  a  man.  ...  To  cast  our  vnclenly  wordes/ 
and  to  synge  vayne  songes  off  ribawdry/  is  called  good  pastyme. 
yee  in  many  places  (the  more  pite)  it  is  come  so  farre/  that  these 
&  such  Uke  vyces  are  couted  no  synne/  nether  is  ther  any  thyng 
rekened  for  synne  in  a  maner  saue  onely  to  talke  of  god  and  his 
trueth."  1 

Becon,  in  his  point  of  view  toward  marriage,  seems  to 
be  the  most  modem  and  least  sordid  of  all  the  religious 
writers.  His  definition  of  the  institution  comes  like  a 
breath  of  fresh  air  into  a  cattle  shed. 

"[Matrimony  is]  an  hie,  holye  and  blessed  order  of  life,  ordayned 
not  of  man,  but  of  God,  .  .  .  wherein  one  man  and  one  woman 
are  coupled  and  knit  together  in  one  fleshe  and  body  in  the  feare 
and  loue  of  God,  by  the  free,  louinge,  harty,  and  good  consente  of 

1  Bullinger,  Christen  state,  "Author  to  Reader/'  ^  1.  This  condi- 
tion of  immoraUty  continued  long  after  Elizabeth's  time.  Thomas 
Hey  wood,  writing  in  1624,  says,  "It  followes  next  in  course,  that  I 
should  define  vnto  you,  what  these  prostitutes  and  common  women 
are;  but  what  need  I  trouble  my  selfe  so  farre,  when  in  these  corrupt 
dales  almost  euerie  Boy  of  fifteene  or  sixteen  yeres  old,  knowes  what  a 
strumpet  is,  better  by  his  own  practise  than  I  can  illustrate  to  him 
by  all  my  reading."  History  concerninge  Women,  p.  287.  Similar 
passages  may  be  found  in  other  books,  such  as  Barnaby  Rich's  Faults, 
Faults  and  Roome  for  a  Gentleman,  Stubbes'  Anatomie  of  Abuses,  etc. 


THE   DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  127 

them  both,  to  the  entent  that  they  two  may  dwel  together,  as  one 
fleshe  and  body  of  one  wyl  and  mynd  in  all  honesty,  vertue  and 
godUness,  and  spend  theyr  lyues  in  equal  partaking  of  all  such 
thinges  as  god  shal  send  them  with  thankes  geuynge."  ^ 

This  is  the  key-note  of  Becon's  Boke  of  Matrimony j  a  work 
of  115  folio  pages,  published  about  1562.^  He  had  already 
considered  matrimony  and  family  life  to  some  extent  in 
his  Catechism,  a  voluminous  treatise  on  almost  every  phase 
of  human  existence,^  and  had  touched  upon  the  duties  of  the 
various  members  of  the  family  in  his  Principles  of  Christian 
Religion.  Considerable  attention  is  given  in  the  Catechism 
to  the  conduct  of  men  in  different  walks  of  life  —  land- 
owners, rich  men,  servants,  beggars,  and  men  of  the  various 
professions  —  and  also  to  household  affairs,  in  which  the 
duties  of  husbands,  wives,  parents,  children,  widows,  young 
men,  maidens,  servants,  and  old  people,  are  considered  in 
some  detail.  The  household  instruction  occupies  fifty- 
eight  pages  in  the  Catechism,  whereas,  in  the  Boke  of  Matri- 
mony, it  is  reduced  to  just  about  half,  the  reader  being 
referred  to  the  earlier  treatment. 

1  Becon,  op.  cit.,  f.  DCxvi.  Compare  this  with  Milton's  definition: 
"Marriage  is  a  divine  institution,  joining  man  and  woman  in  a  love 
fitly  disposed  to  the  helps  and  comforts  of  domestic  life."  Prose  Works, 
II,  143.  Milton  had  already  said,  "God  in  the  first  ordaining  of  mar- 
riage taught  us  to  what  end  he  did  it  ...  to  comfort  and  refresh 
him  [man]]  against  the  evil  of  soUtary  life,  not  mentioning  the  pur- 
pose of  generation  tUl  afterwards,  as  being  but  a  secondary  end  in 
dignity,  though  not  in  necessity."    Ibid.,  I,  343. 

2  No  one  seems  to  have  made  any  attempt  to  ascertain  the  dates  of 
Becon's  different  works.  The  earUest  extant  edition  of  the  Boke  of 
Matrimony,  which  was  written  diuring  his  prolonged  illness,  seems  to 
be  that  contained  in  his  Worckes,  published  in  1564. 

2  The  catechism  was  a  very  popular  form  of  instruction  book  in  this 
period,  and  all  of  them  contain  points  of  interest.  The  instruction, 
however,  was  almost  entirely  religious,  and  seldom  descended  to  every- 
day life  sufficiently  to  give  us  information  on  the  practices  of  the  time. 


128  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

The  Boke  of  Matrimony  we  may  take  as  our  typical  do- 
mestic book  in  its  completest  and  best  balanced  form.  It 
is  divided  into  four  parts:  (1)  the  excellence  and  dignity  of 
marriage,  (2)  what  matrimony  is,  from  different  standpoints, 
(3)  for  what  it  was  instituted,  (4)  the  conduct  of  the  family. 
Internally,  each  part  is  not  so  well  balanced,  but  a  proper 
sense  of  proportion  seems  to  have  been  universally  lacking  in 
writers  of  these  books.  The  only  one  of  the  four  parts 
which  I  have  not  treated  to  some  extent  already,  is  that  on 
family  life.  We  may  consider  it  a  fair  representative  of 
like  discussions  in  other  domestic  books.  Indeed,  the  sim- 
ilarity of  all  such  treatises  is  so  great  that  one  wonders  what 
moved  the  different  writers  to  repeat  over  and  over  that 
which  had  been  said  so  often  before.  Speaking  generally, 
we  may  say  that,  except  for  greater  detail  or  more  extensive 
/illustration,  the  household  section  of  the  domestic  book 
remained  the  same  in  content  and  point  of  view  from  start 
to  finish,  and  that  to  read  one  is  to  read  all.  The  reason  for 
this  is  obvious:  the  original  authority,  that  is  the  Bible, 
was  the  same  for  all,  and  no  controversy  of  interpretation 
had  arisen  in  this  field  among  the  fathers  of  the  church. 
Without  clinging  too  closely  to  Seconds  arrangement  of 
his  material,  we  may  summarize  this  section  of  the  typical 
book  as  follows:  (1)  mutual  duties  of  husband  and  wife  — 
toloveeachother,  to  beget  children,  to  live  chaste;  (2)  duties 
of  husband  to  wife  —  to  act  as  guide,  philosopher,  and 
friend,  to  provide  for  her,  to  defend  and  help  her;  (3)  duties 
of  wife  to  husband  —  to  serve  him  in  subjection,  to  be  modest 
in  speech  and  apparel,  to  have  charge  of  the  house  and  its 
management;  (4)  duties  of  parents  to  children  —  to  bring 
them  up  in  godly  wise,  to  settle  them  in  an  occupation  and 
in  marriage;  (5)  duties  of  children  to  parents  —  to  be  sub- 
ject and  obedient;  (6)  duties  of  masters  and  mistresses  to 
servants  —  to  protect  and  be  kind  to  them;    (7)  duties  of 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  129 

servants  —  to  be  obedient  and  faithful.  In  some  books, 
the  discussion  of  domestic  relations  is  more  full  than  this, 
there  being  in  addition  special  chapters  on  maids,  widows, 
and  stepmothers.  The  woman  usually  receives  the  greater 
part  of  the  instruction,  in  accordance  with  the  popular 
principle  of  the  time  that  she  was,  as  Touchstone  said,  "an 
ill-favored  thing  but  mine  own,"  or,  as  RjCLput  it,  "though 
she  be  by  nature  weaker  than  he  [the  husband],  yet  she  is 
an  excellent  instrument  for  him."  \^  ^    4) 

III.   Later  Domestic  Books 

For  the  light  they  throw  on  Milton  and  on  the  early 
seventeenth  century  writers  in  general,  it  seems  worth 
while  to  trace  the  course  of  the  domestic  conduct  books  as 
far  as  1643,  although,  as  I  have  already  stated,  they  show 
very  little  development  during  this  time.  By  way  of 
preface  to  this  period,  it  may  be  well  to  remark  that  both 
new  books  and  new  editions  of  the  old  continue  without 
break,  and,  excepting  a  very  few,  ^  without  any  effects  from 
other  literary  influences.  One  would  expect  that  the  two 
types  of  Italian  book  illustrated  by  the  Principe  and  the 
Cortegiano  would  have  exerted  a  strong  influence  in  our  field; 
but,  although  both  of  these  works  were  translated  and  imi- 
tated in  the  period,  they  do  not  seem  to  have  affected  the 
domestic  book  as  a  whole  in  the  slightest,  and  although 
they  were  popular  among  aristocratic  circles,  it  is  doubtful 
^  if  they  were  read  by  our  authors. 

The  eighth  and  ninth  decades  of  the  sixteenth  century 
witnessed  a  considerable  amount  of  publication  in  the 
field  of  domestic  literature.  James  Chillester's  translation 
of  Boaistuau's  French  rendition  of  the  Latin  work  of  Tigu- 

^  These  are  treated  separately  later  on,  pp.  140-141,  143-144.  See 
also  Chap.  VI. 


130  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  KELATIONS 

rinus  Chelidonius,  under  the  title  A  most  excellent  Historic 
of  .  ,  .  Christian  Princes,  in  1571,  concludes  with  a  chapter 
on  marriage  and  shows  a  combination  of  the  interest  of  the 
family  book  and  the  book  of  the  Principe  type.  John  Fit 
Jonn's  A  Diamonde  Most  precious,  in  1577,  "Instructing 
all  Maysters  and  Seruaunts  how  they  ought  to  leade  their 
lyues,"  touches  only  one  side  of  the  domestic  book.  Some- 
what longer  and  more  inclusive  works  are:  Dudley  Feimer^s 
The  Order  of  Household,^  in  1584,  The  Schoole  of  Beastes, 
translated  by  J.  B.  from  the  French  of  Pierre  Viret,  one  of 
the  French-Swiss  Reformers,  in  1585,  Hans  Dekin's  trans- 
lation in  c.  1588  of  Herman  V^s  handbook  for  his  people 
under  the  title  A  hriefe  and  plaine  declaration  of  the  duety 
of  marled  folkes,  etc.,  The  Housholders  Philosophic,  translated 
by  Thomas  Kyd  in  1588  from  the  Italian  of  the  poet  Tasso, 
the  anonymous  A  Display  of  Duty,  in  1589,  and  three  appar- 
ently non-extant  books,  R.  W.'s  Order  of  Matrimony,  in  1580, 
S.  S/s  Brief  Instructions  for  Families,  in  1583,  and  Charles 
Gibbon's  Compendius  Form  of  Domestical  Duties,  in  1589.* 
All  of  these  are  rather  small  books  (except,  perhaps,  the 
non-extant  ones),  and  contain  nothing  new  in  the  way  of 
subject  matter.^ 

Two  books  of  this  time  devoted  entirely  to  the  relations 

1  This  forms  the  third  part  of  Fenner's  The  Aries  of  Logike  and 
Rhetorike. 

'  The  last  three  titles  are  taken  from  Watt,  who  also  mentions 
A  Modest  Means  to  Marry,  translated  in  1568  by  N.  Leigh  from  the 
Latin  of  Erasmus.  I  can  find  no  other  reference  to  Leigh  anywhere, 
and  no  such  book  by  Erasmus  ever  seems  to  have  been  heard  of. 

•  The  fact  that  several  of  these  books  are  translations  from  conti- 
nental works,  may  seem  to  invalidate  what  has  been  said  of  the  lack  of 
external  influences  upon  the  English  domestic  book;  but  it  must  be 
noted  that  these  are  not  only  small  and  ephemeral  in  themselves  but 
also  that  they  do  not  seem  to  have  influenced  in  turn  the  later  and  more 
important  books  of  the  type. 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  131 

of  parents  and  children  are  The  Christian  man's  Closet, 
translated  in  1581  from  the  Latin  of  Bartholomew  Batty 
by  William  Lowth,  and  A  Bartholmew  Fairing  for  Parentes  by 
John  Stockwood  in  1589.  The  former  is  in  the  form  of 
a  dialogue  between  three  men  and  a  woman,  and  treats 
pretty  thoroughly  of  the  upbringing,  education,  and  duties 
of  children.  Stockwood's  book  is  concerned  entirely  with 
the  marriage  of  children,  in  which  he  claims,  on  Biblical 
authority,  that  they  should  submit  entirely  to  their  parents' 
dictates. 

"The  question  here  Qie  says]  is  not,  what  children  in  regarde 
either  of  age  or  wit  are  able  for  to  doo  but  what  God  hath  thought 
meet  &  expediet.  .  .  .  For  there  are  many  children  found  some- 
times far  to  exceede  their  fathers  in  wit  and  in  wisedome,  yea  and  in 
al  other  gifes  both  of  mind  &  body,  yet  is  this  no  good  reason  that 
they  should  take  vpon  them  their  fathers  authoritie."  * 

Such  was  the  logic  of  the  time. 

The  books  between  1570  and  1590,  it  may  be  noticed,  are 
all  rather  brief  and  not  in  any  sense  as  weighty  as  either 
Bullinger's  or  Becon's.  In  the  next  decade,  however,  we 
find  several  of  both  length  and  thoroughness.  The  first 
is  William  Perkins'  Christian  Oeconomie,  written  in  Latin  in 
1590  and  translated  by  Thomas  Pickering  in  1609.  Perkins 
was  a  man  of  both  sense  and  learning,  and  his  book  is  one 
of  the  best  planned,  best  balanced,  most  practical,  and  most 
informing  of  the  whole  series.  In  the  table  of  contents  to 
his  The  Golden  Chain,  "  oeconomics,''  or  family  government, 
is  described  as  one  of  the  sacred  sciences  which  are  ''hand- 
maids to  the  Science  of  Theology";  and  this  represents  his 
attitude  to  his  subject,  which  he  treats  from  a  reasonable 

^  Stockwood,  op.  dt.,  p.  82.  Stockwood  says  further  that  marriages 
made  by  children  without  parental  consent  were  legally  void.  He  is 
wrong  here,  unless  he  means  only  children  under  age. 


132  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

and  charitable  point  of  view  rather  than  from  the  dogmatic 
attitude  of  the  textuists.  Marriage  is  first  explained  and 
extolled;  then  the  legal  aspects  are  discussed,  with  a  con- 
sideration of  what  persons  are  fitted  to  marry  and  what 
forms  should  be  gone  through  with;  and  lastly  the  relations 
and  duties  of  the  members  of  the  household  are  concisely 
set  forth.^  All  things  considered,  this  book  is  far  more 
satisfactory  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  It  is  of  convenient 
length  for  practical  use,  being  175  pages,  and  it  impresses 
the  reader  as  presenting  the  true  conditions  of  the  time 
without  any  attempt  to  further  the  views  of  any  one  sect. 

Two  other  good  books  appeared  about  the  same  time. 
One  was  A  Preparative  to  Mariage,  in  1591,  by  Henry  Smith, 
whom  Brook  calls  "the  first  preacher  in  the  nation." 
According  to  the  title  page,  this  treatise  was  developed 
from  a  marriage  sermon.  It  discusses  most  of  the  usual 
points  but  is  poorly  proportioned  and  absolutely  without 
order  or  arrangement.  Domestic  relations  are  summarized 
thus: 

"The  dueties  of  marriage  may  be  reduced  to  the  dueties  of  man 
and  wife  one  toward  another,  and  their  duties  towarde  theyr  Chil- 
dren, and  their  dueties  towarde  their  seruants.  For  themselues, 
sayeth  one,^  they  must  thinke  themselues  like  two  birdes,  the  one 
is  the  Cocke  and  the  other  is  the  Dam:  the  Cocke  flieth  abroad 
to  bring  in,  and  the  Dam  sitteth  vpon  the  nest  to  keepe  all  at 
home  ...  for  the  mans  pleasure  is  most  abroad  and  the  womans 
within."  3 

The  other  book,  which  is  quite  similar  on  the  whole  to  those 
of  Perkins  and  Smith,  is  A  Godly  Form  of  Hovseholde  Gouerne- 
ment,  by  R.  C.  [Robert  Cleaver?],  in  1598  and  republished 
in  1600,  1603,  1612,  and  1630.     This  book,  the  writer  says, 

1  The  table  of  contents  of  this  book  is  given  in  Appendix  D,  below. 

2  This  story  occurs  also  in  Dekyn's  book,  f .  B8  h,  and  may  have  been 
taken  from  it. 

'  Smith,  op.  dt.,  p.  46. 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  13^ 

is  partly  original  and  partly  gathered  from  preceding  works. 
Its  various  sources  are  unimportant,  but  even  a  casual 
reader  will  notice  that  whole  passages  are  lifted  from  Smithes 
Preparative.  R.  C.'s  was  the  longest  book  yet  written, 
running  to  392  pages,  but  its  material  is  poorly  arranged. 
The  point  of  view  is,  on  the  whole,  broad  and  lenient.  Of 
family  government,  it  is  said: 

"A  wise  husband,  and  one  that  seeketh  to  liue  in  quiet  with  his  ^\J 
wife,  must  obserue  these  three  rules.  Often  to  admonish:  Seldome 
to  reprooue:  and  neuer  to  smite  her.  .  .  .  The  husband  is  also 
to  vnderstand,  that  as  God  created  the  woma,  not  of  the  head,  & 
so  equall  in  authoritie  with  her  husband:  so  also  he  created  her 
not  of  Adams  foote,  that  she  should  be  troden  downe  and  despised, 
but  he  tooke  her  out  of  the  ribbe,  that  shee  might  walke  ioyntly 
with  him,  vnder  the  conduct  and  gouernment  of  her  head."  i 

Three  other  works  may  be  briefly  dismissed.  Charles 
Gibbon's  A  Work  worth  the  Reading,  in  1591,  has  two  chapters 
on  the  relations  of  parents  and  children,  but  as  a  whole  is 
not  a  domestic  book.  In  his  discussion  of  the  marriage 
of  children.  Gibbon  upholds  the  belief  that  the  affections  of 
the  children  should  be  of  more  weight  than  the  wishes  of 
the  parents.  The  anonymous  Order  of  Household  Instruc- 
tion, in  1596,  seems  to  be  non-extant.^  There  is  a  very 
brief  treatise,  Duties  of  Husband  and  Wife,  undated,  annexed 
to  R.  C.'s  Godly  Form  and  perhaps  written  by  him,  but  it  is 
of  no  importance.^ 

^  R.  C,  op.  cit.,  p.  201.  The  same  statement  and  illustration,  in 
somewhat  different  wording,  occurs  in  Perkins'  Christian  Oeconomie, 
p.  125,  in  Griff eth's  Bethel,  p.  289,  in  the  anonymous  A  Curtaine  Lecture, 
p.  170,  and  in  one  of  Donne's  sermons,  Works,  IV,  29,  where  it  is  attrib- 
uted to  St.  Jerome.  So  much  sameness  of  subject  matter  and  treat- 
ment is  there  in  these  family  books. 

2  It  is  mentioned  by  Watt.  '^^^ 

'  The  book  Of  Mariage  and  Wiuing,  a  controversy  between  Tasso, 
the  poet,  and  his  cousin  Hercules,  the  philosopher,  translated  into 


134  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

The  course  of  the  domestic  book  during  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century  is  somewhat  obscured  by  the 
many  contemporary  works  of  various  kindred  types  all 
centering  around  the  subjects  of  marriage,  married  life, 
and  divorce.  Some  of  these  have  already  been  mentioned 
in  preceding  chapters,  and  others  will  be  taken  up  later; 
but  all  such  must  be  omitted  for  the  present  in  order  that 
we  may  follow  our  narrow  stream  into  the  larger  and  more 
confused  current.  As  suggested  above,  these  other  influences 
seem  to  have  left  the  narrower  stream  unaffected. 

The  family  books  of  this  period  contain  practically  the 
same  subject  matter  as  their  forerunners,  except  for  the 
omission  or  curtailing  of  the  discussion  of  the  entrance 
into  matrimony,  and  approach  the  subject,  on  the  whole, 
in  much  the  same  way.  It  will  be  sufficient,  therefore, 
to  pass  them  by  in  review  as  briefly  as  possible.  Swinburne's 
Treatise  of  Spousals,  already  referred  to  many  times,  was 
written  about  1600,  but  as  it  treats  of  spousals  only,  further 
mention  of  it  is  unnecessary.  William  Vaughan's  The  Golden 
Grove,  1599,  republished  in  1608,  contains  one  section  on 
marriage.  Beside  the  usual  contents,  Vaughan  presents 
a  new  classification  of  marriage,  according  to  which  he 
represents  it  as  being  of  four  kinds:  (1)  of  honor,  that  is, 
between  man  and  God,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  or  of  Christ  with  the  church;  (2)  of 
love,  that  is,  the  union  of  an  honest  man  and  an  honest 
woman;  (3)  of  toil,  in  the  case  where  a  man  chooses  a  woman 
for  her  riches  only;  (4)  of  grief,  the  union  of  two  wicked 
persons.^  Joseph  HalPs  Salomons  Diuine  Arts,  in  1609, 
devotes  one  section  to  oeconomics  or  household  govern- 
ment, in  which  he  discusses  family  affairs,  omitting  mar- 
English  by  R.  T.  in  1599,  can  hardly  be  classified  with  the  family 
books.    For  further  notice  of  it,  see  below,  p.  144. 

*  A  similar  classification  is  made  in  Griff eth's  Bethel,  p.  255  ff. 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  135 

riage  itself  altogether,  by  stringing  texts  together,  with 
words  of  his  own  interpolated,  in  a  style  unequaled  by 
Sancho  Panza.^  It  contains  nothing  of  interest.  In  1610, 
Edward  Topsell  published  a  volume  of  three  sermons 
entitled  The  House-holder,  in  which  he  says  in  the  preface 
"are  many  sweet  flowers,  many  profitable  trees  or  Plantes, 
and  many  faire  growing  seeds."  The  last  sermon  contains 
some  instruction  of  a  definite  kind,  particularly  for  farm 
life;  the  others  are  merely  moral  discourses.  Robert 
Snawsel's  A  Looking  Glasse  for  maried  Folkes,  in  1610,  a 
dialogue  between  four  women  and  one  man,  is  almost  as 
good  as  a  play  and  has  real  literary  qualities,  but  its  purpose 
seems  to  be  utilitarian  rather  than  artistic.  Its  entire  sub- 
ject matter  is  the  relationship  which  should  exist  between 
man  and  wife,  especially  the  treatment  that  wives  owe  their 
husbands.  A  book  concerned  altogether  with  the  relations 
of  parent  and  child  was  translated  by  John  Budden  in  1614 
from  the  French  of  Peirre  Ayrault,  under  the  title  of  A 
Discovrse  for  Parents  Honour  and  Authoritie.  In  this,  the 
opposite  view  is  taken  from  Gibbon's,  as  the  author,  in  a 
kind  of  supplication  of  distressed  parents,  argues  that  in  the 
question  of  their  marriage,  children  should  have  nothing  to 
say  whatever. 

The  book  of  domestic  duties  reached  its  culmination  in 
the  second  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Although 
the  household  alone  had  previously  been  made  the  subject 

^  The  following  description  of  the  scarlet  woman  is  too  good  to 
lose:  "By  the  abundance  of  the  sweetnesse  of  her  speech  (Pr.  7.  21) 
shee  caused  him  to  yeeld :  and  with  the  flatterie  of  her  lippes  she  intised 
him;  and  straight  wayes  hee  foUowes  her  as  an  oxe  goeth  to  the  slaugh- 
ter (Pr.  7.  22)  and  as  a  foole  to  the  stockes  for  correction  (Pr.  7.  23) 
till  a  dart  strike  through  his  liuer,  the  seate  of  his  lust:  or  as  a  birde 
hasteneth  to  the  snare,  and  knoweth  not  that  it  is  against  his  owne 
life:  thus  shee  doeth  and  when  her  husband  returnes,  shee  wipeth  her 
mouth  and  saith,  I  haue  not  committed  iniquitie. "     Op.  dt.,  p.  158. 


136  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

of  several  works,  these  were  for  the  most  part  very  slight. 
At  this  time,  however,  we  have  a  number  of  important  books, 
some  of  which  we  must  consider  for  a  moment  at  least. 
These  are:  William  Whately's  A  Bride-hush,  1619  and  1623, 
Alexander  Niccholes'  A  Discovrse  of  Marriage  and  Wiving, 
1620;  William  Gouge's  Domestical  Duties,  second  edition  in 
1626,  third  in  1634  ^;  Carters  Christian  Commonwealth,  by 
Thomas  Carter,  1627;  Matthew  Griffeth's  Bethel,  1633; 
Daniel  Touteville's  Saint  PauVs  Threefold  Cord,  1635;  the 
anonymous  A  Curtaine  Lecture,  1637 ;  Daniel  Rogers'  Matri- 
moniall  Honovr,  1642;  WiUiam  Dyke's  A  Discourse  on  Mat- 
rimony, 1642;  and  Thomas  Page's  Demonstration  of  Family 
Duties,  1643.  The  last  two  seem  to  be  non-extant  .^  Nic- 
choles' and  Touteville's  we  may  also  drop  without  further 
notice,  as  they  contain  nothing  of  interest.  Carter's  book, 
bearing  the  subtitle  of  Domesticall  Dutyes  deciphered,  a 
treatise  of  275  pages,  is  on  the  family  alone,  taking  up  in 
separate  chapters  the  duties  of  husbands,  wives,  parents, 
children,  masters,  and  servants.  Whately's  book  is  con- 
cerned entirely  with  the  duties  of  husband  and  wife,  which 
are  divided  into  the  greater  and  the  lesser,  the  classification 
being  based  on  whether  or  not  the  failure  in  any  one  was 
sufficient  cause  for  divorce.  This  book,  220  pages  in  length, 
is  perhaps  the  most  thorough  of  all  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  is 
evident  that  it  covers  but  one  phase  of  family  life.  Besides 
its  thoroughness,  it  has  the  merits  of  being  excellently 
planned  and  written  from  the  point  of  view  of  practical 
common  sense  rather  than  from  the  authority  of  the  Bible 
and  the  classics. 

^  I  am  unable  to  ascertain  the  date  of  the  first  edition. 

*  Dyke's  book  is  mentioned  by  the  Stationers'  Register,  Feb.  25, 
Page's  by  Watt.  Another  book,  A  Discovrse  of  the  Married  and 
Single  Life,  anonymous,  1621,  is  merely  a  coarse  and  silly  diatribe 
against  women. 


THE   DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  137 

Gouge^s  Domestical  Duties  and  Griffeth's  Bethel:  or,  Forme 
for  Families  may  fairly  be  said  to  exhaust  all  previous 
sources  and  authorities  in  their  treatment  of  family  life. 
Both  are  large  works,  the  former  running  to  368  folio  pages, 
and  the  latter  to  528  pages  quarto.  Although  both  are 
chiefly  concerned  with  the  domestic  side  of  marriage,  there 
is  a  discussion  in  each  of  the  contract  of  matrimony  from  a 
practical  standpoint.  The  impediments  are  confined  by 
both  writers  to  the  Levitical  degrees,  but  Gouge  strongly 
condemns  the  marriage  of  impotent  or  diseased  persons. 
He  also  states  that  divorce  is  allowable  for  adultery  and 
for  desertion  due  to  religious  differences;  Griffeth  condemns 
adultery  and  other  vices  but  does  not  touch  the  subject  of 
divorce.  A  short  consideration  of  the  double  standard  of 
morality  occurs  in  both  books,  in  which  the  authors  agree 
that  faithlessness  on  the  part  of  the  wife  causes  greater 
evils  to  the  family;  but  on  the  magnitude  of  the  sin  itself, 
they  disagree.  Gouge  holding  that  it  is  the  same  for  both 
sexes  and  Griffeth  maintaining  that  the  woman  sins  the 
more.  Gouge's  book  is  superior  in  both  arrangement  and 
general  treatment,  and  is  further  enhanced  by  a  table  of 
contents,  an  index,  and  cross  references.  The  first  part, 
comprising  one  fourth  of  the  whole,  is  an  exposition  of  those 
parts  of  the  Scriptures  from  which  the  later  teachings  of 
the  book  are  drawn,  and  obviates  the  overloading  of  the 
following  sections  with  Biblical  texts,  a  fault  which  is 
only  too  noticeable  in  Griffeth's  work.  Moreover,  like  the 
books  by  Perkins  and  Whately,  it  is  most  sensibly  written 
and  argued,  and  impresses  one  as  being  based  not  only  on 
the  Scriptures  but  also  on  the  practices  and  thought  of  the 
time,  whereas  Griffeth's  work  resembles  more  some  of  the 
previous  hashings  and  rehashings  of  ancient  dogma.  For 
the  word  Bethel  on  the  title  page,  Griffeth  substitutes  God's 
building  in  the  body  of  his  book;  and  it  is  his  intention  to 


/ 


138  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

show  how  a  family  should  be  constructed  into  some  such 
form.  Gouge,  on  the  other  hand,  is  more  concerned  with 
giving  practical  instructions  for  family  life  along  the  best 
human  lines.^ 

Daniel  Rogers'  Matrimoniall  Honovr  is  interesting  for 
several  reasons.  It  was  written  by  a  minister  of  the  Church 
of  England;  like  Gouge's  book,  it  is  an  exposition  of  life 
rather  than  the  Scriptures;  it  is  extremely  human  in  its 
attitude,  kindly  towards  the  much  abused  weaknesses  of 
mankind,  and  respectful  towards  people  whose  beliefs 
differed  from  the  author's  own.  Were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  it  covers  but  a  small  part  of  the  field,  although  389 
pages  in  length,  it  would  surely  outrank  all  others  of  the 
type.  Rogers  discusses  only  two  main  subjects,  the  honor 
of  matrimony  and  the  duties  of  husband  and  wife,  but 
digresses  at  times  to  speak  of  parental  consent  to  child 
marriages,  of  contracts  of  marriage,  and,  in  an  appendix, 
of  chastity  and  the  lack  of  it.  The  chapter  on  contracts 
contains  much  information,  but  nothing  that  has  not  been 
already  noted,  except  that  on  the  subject  of  the  marriage 
of  cousins  germain,  the  writer  says:  "I  observe  of  late 
time  many  more  Divines  to  encline  to  the  affirmative,  then 
formerly  have  done;  and  some  of  them  .  .  .  that  they 
do  write  for  it,  and  have  determined  the  marriages  of 
some  in  this  way."  ^  Rogers  himself  upholds  the  Levitical 
degrees  but  does  not  mention  other  impediments.  Divorce 
and  the  annulment  of  marriage  are  not  discussed  at  all. 
The  book  is  particularly  free  from  Scriptural  references 
(there  is  about  one  per  page)  and  even  more  so  from  allu- 
sions to  the  classics  and  the  church  fathers.  On  the  whole, 
the  style  is  the  most  pleasing  and  the  least  pedantic  of  all 

^  In  order  that  the  reader  may  have  a  complete  idea  of  the  domestic 
book,  I  give  in  Appendix  D,  below,  outlines  of  the  contents  of  those  by 
Perkins,  Gouge,  and  Griff eth. 

2  Rogers,  op.  cit.,  p.  111. 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  139 

the  books  we  have  considered.  At  times  there  is  real  beauty 
of  a  naive  kind,  as  in  the  passages  already  quoted  ^  or  in 
the  following  one  on  the  " gracef ullness "  of  the  wife: 

"Let  thy  pleasing  influence  breake  through  all  opposition  and 
sorrowes,  as  the  Sunne  breakes  through  the  thick  mist,  or  darke 
cloudes,  yea  although  eclipsed  in  part,  yet  shine  in  part,  and  let  a 
gUmmering  appeare;  remember,  thou  art  a  true  friend,  made  for 
the  day  of  adversity.  .  .  .  Every  base  bird  (while  summer  lasts) 
will  chirp  and  chitter:  But  to  sing  upon  a  bare  bow,  or  thorne 
bush,  when  the  leaves  are  gone,  and  the  cold  winter  approacheth, 
this  argues  a  wife  truely  gracefull,  truly  amiable  and  cheerfull,  and 
(next  to  the  Soule's  peace  with  God)  is  the  greatest  content  under 
the  Sunne." « 

IV.  The  Domestic  Book  as  Literature 

As  has  already  been  intimated,  the  domestic  book  is  util- 
itarian rather  than  literary,  and  whenever  a  passage  of  some 
artistic  merit  occurs,  such  as  the  one  just  quoted  from 
Rogers,  it  is,  like  water  in  the  desert,  refreshing  but  seem- 
ingly out  of  place.  A  few  sporadic  works  make  usefulness 
subservient  to  art;  but  before  mentioning  these,  it  will 
be  well  to  note  the  stylistic  features  of  the  more  typical 
book. 

Perhaps  the  most  noticeable  of  these  is  the  use  of  Biblical 
texts  and  Biblical,  ecclesiastical,  and  classical  authority 
and  illustration.  In  Fenner's  Order  of  Household,  texts 
occupy  more  space  than  the  explanation  of  them;  on  the 
other  hand,  some  books  are  almost  free  from  texts  as  well 
as  from  precepts  and  anecdotes  from  the  classics  and  church 
fathers.  A  generous  sprinkling  of  all  three  is  foimd  on  the 
average  page,  the  proportion  depending  on  whether  the 
writer  is  accustomed  to  argue  on  the  basis  of  authority  and 
precedent  or  on  that  of  common  sense  and  expediency. 

1  See  above,  pp.  90-91. 
*  Rogers,  op.  cit.,  p.  315. 


140  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

Many  writers  vary  the  monotony  of  their  prose  by  intro- 
ducing verses  translated  from  Greek  and  Latin  authors. 
The  translations  are  usually  clumsy,  but  occasionally 
there  is  one  with  considerable  naive  grace.^  For  illustra- 
tion, writers  went  also  to  the  animal  world.  Viret,  for 
example,  in  The  Schoole  of  Beastes,  draws  all  his  lessons 
in  household  economy  from  this  source,  which  he  divides 
into  three  species,  —  (1)  ants,  conies,  grasshoppers,  and 
spiders;  (2)  pigeons,  swallows,  partridges,  hares,  and  hedge- 
hogs; (3)  the  Halsion  (a  "Byrde  of  the  Sea"),  "phyces," 
the  lamprey,  the  tortoise,  the  sea-calf,  and  the  crocodile. 
Much  of  this  pseudo-naturalism,  like  Lyly's,  is  taken  over 
from  classical  sources,  Ovid  being  a  favorite.  The  amount 
of  such  illustrations,  like  that  from  the  Scriptures  and  the 
classics,  varies  greatly,  in  some  books  being  practically 
absent  altogether.  The  more  ecclesiastical  writers  preferred 
to  take  examples  from  their  own  stock  in  trade. 

The  dialogue  form  was  employed  to  add  variety,  which 
it  usually  failed  to  do,  inasmuch  as  the  writer,  without 
changing  his  character  or  point  of  view,  merely  shouted 
through  different  masks.  This  was  not  so  in  every  case, 
but  at  best  the  debate  resolved  itself  into  a  puppet  show  in 
which  the  author  pulled  all  the  strings.  In  only  one  or 
two  instances  is  the  nature  of  these  dialogues  taken  from 
the  Italian  conversazione.  The  devise  is,  of  course,  much 
older  than  the  Italian  Renaissance,  having  come  into  Eng- 
land through  the  classical  dialogue  and  the  French  d^bat 
and  more  directly  at  this  time  through  the  dialogues  of 
the  church  fathers.  The  former,  especially  the  dialogues  of 
Plato,  Cicero,  and  Seneca,  was,  I  think,  a  greater  influence 
among  these  books  than  either  the  older  French  or  English 

*  Viret,  Schoole  of  Beastes,  Niccholes,  Discovrse  of  Marriage  and 
Wiving,  and  Heywood,  History  concerninge  Women,  contain  some  of 
the  best  of  these. 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  141 

or  the  contemporary  Italian.  The  similarity  to  the  classic 
type  is  seen  in  the  use  of  various  speakers  merely  to  draw 
out  the  opinion  of  the  one  man  who  leads  the  discussion 
and  who  alone  has  any  character  or  anything  to  say.  Thus 
the  style  failed  to  be  affected  to  any  extent  by  the  device, 
and  remained  practically  the  same  as  when  the  writer 
spoke  in  his  own  character  without  taking  the  trouble  to 
dodge  about  in  different  make-ups.  The  only  really  suc- 
cessful exception  to  this,  outside  of  those  where  the  purpose 
of  the  work  is  avowedly  artistic  rather  than  utilitarian,  is 
Snawsel's  Looking  Glasse  for  maried  FolkeSf  where  each 
speaker  has  a  distinct  character  and  distinct  ideas.  A 
passage  on  the  proper  way  for  a  wife  to  treat  her  husband 
may  be  worth  quoting: 

"Eulalie  [the  well-spoken].  When  he  lookt  at  any  time  very 
sad,  &  there  were  no  fit  time  to  speak  to  him,  I  would  not  the 
laugh  &  daily  with  him,  and  play  the  tom-boy  .  .  .  but  I  put 
vpon  me  a  sad  countenance,  and  lookt  heauily.  ...  So  it  be- 
seemes  an  honest  wife  to  frame  herselfe  to  her  husbands  affections. 
.  .  And  if  at  any  time  he  were  stird,  I  would  either  pacify  him, 
with  a  gentle  speech,  or  giue  way  to  his  wrath.  .  .  .  This  course 
also  I  tooke;  if  he  came  drunken  home,  I  would  not  then  for  any- 
thing haue  giue  him  a  foule  word,  but  I  would  cause  his  bed  to  be 
made  very  soft  and  easie,  that  he  might  sleepe  the  better,  and  by 
faire  speeches  get  him  to  it. 

"Margerie  [a  proud  malapert].  Here  are  fetters  for  the  legs, 
and  yoakes  for  the  neckes  of  women:  must  they  crouch  on  this 
manner  to  their  currish  and  swinish  husbands?  If  I  had  such  an 
one,  as  he  behaued  himselfe  like  a  swine,  so  would  I  use  him  like 
a  beast."  ^ 

When  the  writer  faced  a  real  rather  than  an  imaginary  op- 
ponent, his  style  was  likely  to  become  much  more  vivacious; 
but  this  seldom  took  place  in  these  books.    The  Church 
*  Snawsel,  op.  cit.j  f .  D  6. 


142  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

of  Rome  was  the  usual  opponent  when  there  was  one,  but 
the  lack  of  personality  and  personal  criticism  in  this  case 
rendered  opposition  to  it  much  less  vigorous  than  other  con- 
temporary writing  of  more  truly  controversial  nature. 

As  a  rule,  then,  the  style  of  the  domestic  book  is  pretty 
flat,  pedantic,  heavy.  It  reminds  one  of  the  atmosphere 
of  a  Puritan  household :  the  author  or  father  is  tremendously 
serious,  texts  fly  about,  the  fate  of  the  family  seems  to  hang 
momentarily  in  the  balance,  now  and  then  there  is  a  sally 
at  those  who  would  take  Sunday  to  walk  in  the  Mall,  less 
often  a  softening  of  tone  over  some  remembered  incident; 
but  on  the  whole  life  is  earnest,  if  not  real,  for  this  house- 
hold; God  is  watching  overhead  ready  to  descend  in  his 
wrath  at  the  first  slip  by  any  one  of  its  members  from  the 
narrow  path,  and  the  devil  is  waiting  in  ambush  hoping 
to  trip  the  unwary. 

As  I  have  already  indicated,  there  grew  up  no  literary 
genre  on  the  subject  of  matrimony.  Books  in  which  the 
characters  happen  to  be  married,  more  general  works  on 
morals  and  conduct,  and  plays  dealing  with  the  subject, 
are  not  to  be  classified  here.  The  residue  are  few  in  number, 
scattered  as  to  date,  and,  except  for  a  few  satires,  seem  to 
have  neither  mutual  relations  nor  common  ancestry.  Never- 
theless, these  should  be  mentioned  briefly  before  we  leave 
the  field  altogether. 

As  early  as  Middle  English  times,  we  find  the  subject  of 
marriage  entering  literary  fields.  Passing  by  such  alle- 
gorical poems  as  the  Wohing  of  ure  Laverde,  which  deal 
with  the  old  idea  of  the  marriage  of  Christ  and  the  church, 
we  find  more  than  incidental  interest  in  the  subject  shown 
in  the  story  of  Meed  in  Piers  the  Plowman,  The  treatment 
here,  however,  is  too  general  to  merit  more  attention. 
Chaucer  makes  considerable  capital  of  marital  affairs,  and 
a  number  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  seem  to  have  been  de- 


THE  DOMESTIC   CONDUCT  BOOK  143 

signed  to  set  forth  the  different  contemporary  points  of 
view  towards  married  life  and  the  character  of  the  married 
woman.  The  Prologue  to  the  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  which 
introduces  the  group,  is  especially  noticeable  for  its  satire 
of  the  ecclesiastical  attitude  towards  the  institution.  Bar- 
clay, in  his  Ship  of  Fools,  devotes  a  few  sections  to  the 
various  evil  practices  connected  with  marriage,  but  these 
do  not  form  any  distinct  part  of  the  larger  work.  For  over 
half  a  century  after  this,  the  subject  occurs  only  in  verse 
satires  and  as  an  incidental  interest  in  other  literary  works 
—  the  drama  for  instance.  The  former  are  altogether  on 
the  hardships  of  married  life  and  emphasize  the  evils  suf- 
fered by  one  party  from  the  brutishness  of  the  other .^  John 
Heywood's  A  dialogue  .  .  .  concernynge  two  maner  of  maryages, 
in  1561,  alone  shows  a  serious  interest  in  the  subject. 
Here,  in  a  one-sided  dialogue  between  a  young  man  and  an 
old,  the  latter,  in  recounting  the  history  of  two  marriages  — 
one  of  an  impecunious  but  loving  couple,  the  other  of  a 
poor  young  man  and  a  rich  old  widow  —  shows  the  ill 
fate  of  both  unions.  It  is  in  four-stress  verse,  irregular 
and  uneven,  rhymed  in  couplets.  The  most  interesting 
literary  feature  of  it  is  the  use  of  old  saws,  of  which  it  is 
a  veritable  storehouse.  Tilney's  Flower  of  Friendship  shows 
very  strongly  the  Italian  influence,  and  is  the  most  success- 
ful English  court  of  love  conversazione  that  I  have  seen. 
There  were  two  editions  in  1568  and  another  in  1571.  This 
book,  by  Edward  Tilney,  afterwards  Master  of  Revels 
to  Queen  Elizabeth,  is  a  close  imitation  of  the  Cortegiano. 
The  title  signifies  marital  love,  which  Tilney  understands 
to  be  literally  the  flower  of  friendship.  In  the  first  day's 
discussion.  Master  Pedro  leads  the  dialogue,  which  turns 
upon  how  a  husband  should  preserve  this  flower.  On  the 
second  day.  Lady  Julia,  who  has  been  replaced  by  Aloisa 

^  For  further  account  of  these,  see  p.  163  ff.  below. 


144  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

as  queen,  leads  a  discourse  on  the  duties  of  a  wife.  Vives 
and  Erasmus  are  introduced  as  interlocutors,  but  neither 
has  much  to  say.  On  the  whole,  the  dialogue  falls  short 
of  Castiglione's  in  having  less  exchange  of  opinion  and  less 
repartee  and  in  the  absence  of  the  wisdom  of  a  Bembo.  A 
book  by  Tasso,  translated  by  Thomas  Kyd  in  1588  ^  under 
the  title  of  The  Housholders  Philosophiej  though  similar  in 
many  ways  to  the  CortegianOy  is  not  a  conversation  but  a 
monologue  in  a  typical  Italian  setting  on  the  usual  house- 
hold subjects.  The  poet's  ideal  of  marriage  is  better  ex- 
pressed in  the  dialogue  with  his  cousin  Hercules,  entitled 
Of  Manage  and  Wiuingj  which  was  translated  by  R.  T. 
in  1599.  Here,  woman  is  apotheosized  in  Platonic  love* 
marriage  is  apostrophized  thus : 

*'0  sweete  conioyning  of  loyall  hearts,  O  dulcet  union  of  our 
soules  togither,  O  most  louely  nuptuall  knot,  0  most  chaste,  pure 
and  religious  marriage  yoake,  who  are  rather  a  pleasing  ease,  and 
a  most  welcome  delight  to  support  and  beare,  then  any  hard  weight 
or  greeuous  burthen  to  sustaine:  rather  a  releeuing  comfort  that 
vpholdeth  vs  euery  way,  then  a  troublesome  labour,  that  any  way 
paineth  us." 

This  is  somewhat  typical  of  the  poet's  part  of  the  dialogue, 
which  inclines  towards  cant  and  rhapsodizing.  It  is  dis- 
concerting to  think  that  this  writer  was  not  married,  and 
that  his  cousin,  who  villifies  woman  and  marriage,  was. 
Bacon  wrote  three  essays  which  are  worth  mentioning  here, 
Married  and  Single  Life,  Parents  and  Children,  and  Friend- 
ship; but  these  are  too  brief  and  empty  to  be  of  importance 
to  us.  The  opening  sentence  from  the  first,  "He  that 
hath  wife  and  children  hath  given  hostages  to  fortune,'' 
is  deservedly  famous. 
In  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find  more 

1  On  the  title  page,  only  the  initials  T.  K.  are  given,  but  the  Camb, 
Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  V,  177,  ascribes  the  translation  to  Kyd. 


THE   DOMESTIC   CONDUCT   BOOK  145 

literature  on  the  subject,^  but  still  not  enough  to  enable  us 
to  attach  much  importance  to  it.  An  anonymous  Scottish 
poem,  in  1603,  Ane  verie  excellent  and  deledabill  Treatise 
intitulit  Philotus,  reminds  one  of  Heywood's  dialogue.  The 
title  page  gives  its  substance — ''Qvhairin  we  may  persave 
the  greit  inconveniences  that  fallis  out  in  the  Manage 
betvvene  age  and  zouth."  It  is  a  verse  dialogue  and  may 
have  been  written  as  an  interlude.^  Patric  Hannay's  A 
Happy  Husband,  1618,  and  R.  B.'s  The  Good  Wife,  1619, 
may  be  taken  together.^  Both  are  in  verse,  the  former  in 
heroic  distich,  well  maintained,  and  the  latter  in  seven-line 
stanzas.  Both  are  on  women,  are  fairly  short,  and  are  typical 
of  the  "character  writing"  popular  at  the  time.  The  Happy 
Husband  consists  of  two  parts,  directions  for  a  maid  as  to 
how  to  choose  a  husband  and  her  proper  behavior  after 
marriage.  The  poem  is  coupled  by  commendatory  verses 
with  Overbury's  A  Wife.  The  Good  Wife  is  merely  the 
usual  description  of  what  she  should  be. 

Two  amusing  books  of  similar  nature  appeared  in  1637 
and  1640.  The  earlier  is  the  anonymous  A  Curtaine  Lecture,* 
the  other  is  ArH  asleepe  Husband?  A  boulster  lecture  by 
Richard  Brathwait  under  the  pseudonym  of  Philogenes 
Panedonius.  The  content  of  each  represents  what  the 
husband  has  to  submit  to  from  his  talkative  wife  after  they 

^  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  divisions  I  am  making  between 
"literary"  and  "non-literary"  works  and  between  those  which  are  on 
and  off  the  subject,  are  purely  arbitrary  ones.  It  is  impossible  to  divide 
the  wheat  from  the  tares  accurately  on  either  basis,  but  some  attempt 
at  classification  must  be  adopted  for  obvious  reasons.  Books  which 
combine  the  subject  in  hand  with  other  interests,  as  well  as  those  which 
but  touch  upon  it,  are  discussed  in  Chapter  VI,  below. 

2  It  is  mentioned  as  such  in  the  Camb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  Ill,  138. 

3  The  Good  Wife  was  contributed  to  the  1619  edition  of  the  Happy 
Husband.     R.B.  is  Richard  Brathwait. 

*  The  dedication  of  this  book  is  signed  T.  H.,  which  has  been 
taken  to  stand  for  Thomas  Hey  wood. 


146  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

have  retired  for  the  night,  but  the  former  contains  also  a 
treatise  of  the  ordinary  kind  on  the  duties  of  the  wife.  The 
frontispiece  of  each  represents  a  beUigerent  looking  wife 
sitting  up  in  bed  and  pointing  an  authoritative  finger  at 
her  husband,  who  is  evidently  trying  to  sleep.  From  her 
mouth  issue  the  words,  '^Vera  praedico/'  to  which  he  re- 
plies "Mulieri  ne  credas"  The  second  part  of  the  Curtaine 
Lecture  and  the  entire  Ar't  asleepe  Husband?  are  typical 
jest  books  composed  of  ''all  variety  of  witty  jeastes,  merry 
tales  and  other  pleasant  passages,"  those  of  the  latter  claim- 
ing the  classics,  Ariosto,  Tasso,  Boccaccio,  Barclay,  and 
others  as  their  sources.  The  original  point  of  view  is  lost 
somewhere,  as  most  of  the  stories  are  on  the  characteristics 
of  womankind,  particularly  her  failings.  Most  of  them  are 
fabliau  and  exemplum  tales;  often  the  vulgar  subject  matter 
of  the  former  is  used  with  the  moral  purpose  of  the  latter. 
The  dedication  to  Ar^t  asleepe  Husband?  gives  promise  of  a 
style  which  is  not  fulfilled  in  the  book  but  is  perhaps  worth 
quoting  for  itself.  It  is  addressed  by  the  author  ''To  his 
Dainty  Doxes." 

"Dainty  fine  Creatures,  —  I  will  not  sweare,  in  good  faith  you 
be;  But  —  if  in  your  censure  you  prove  sweet  to  me,  I  little  care, 
believe't  how  sowre  you  be.  One  thing  I  must  tell  you,  the  World 
ha's  a  strange  opinion  of  you:  But  let  this  not  trouble  you:  for 
the  most  of  those  that  sojourne  in  it,  are  Walking  Pictures,  or 
Puppy  Motions.  So  you  live  without  Scandall,  let  the  Constable 
of  the  Ward  snore,  and  Diogenes  waike  all  the  night  o'er  with  his 
Candle,  Though  he  finde  Works  of  lightnesse  in  Houses  of  Dark- 
nesse,  Single  Skirmishes  in  blinde  Alleys,  Backstayres  and  Long 
Entries:  whole  bunches  of  Cornucopia  in  his  new  found  Europia: 
Cleave  you  like  Ticks  to  your  own,  preserve  your  renowne,  and  sing 
Hey  downe  a  downe,  to  the  honour  of  the  towne.  Thus,  neither  to 
all,  nor  to  many,  but  to  very- very  few,  and  those  of  that  Crue,  who 
are  loyall  and  true,  bids  Musaeus  —  Adiew."  ^ 

^  Brathwait,  op.  cii.,  f.  a3. 


CHAPTER  V 
CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN 

I.  Ecclesiastical 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the  whole  of  our  period  a 
single  book  of  religious  or  moral  nature  touching  upon  woman 
in  which  it  did  not  appear  that  she  was,  if  not  wholly  weak 
and  sinful,  at  least  far  inferior  to  man.  The  more  lenient 
writers  admitted  that  there  were  a  few  exceptions  to  this 
rule;  but  until  Puritan  ideals  came  to  have  some  influence, 
the  average  characterization  represented  woman  as  at  best 
but  a  ''necessary  evil"  for  the  propagation  of  the  race.  "A 
Good  Woman  (as  an  old  Philosopher  observeth)  is  but  like 
one  Ele  put  in  a  bagge  amongst  500  Snakes,  and  if  a  man 
should  have  the  luck  to  grope  out  that  one  Ele  from  all  the 
snakes,  yet  he  hath  at  best  hut  a  wet  Ele  by  the  Taile;  and 
he  that  wedds  himself  to  one  fair  and  dishonest,  he  wedds 
himself  to  a  world  of  misery,  and  if  one  beautifull  and  never 
so  Vertuous,  yet  let  him  think  this  he  wedds  but  a  woman, 
and  therefore  a  necessary  evil."  Bishop  Aylmer,  in  a  sermon 
before  Queen  Ehzabeth,  admitted  that  some  women  were 
superior  to  some  men,  but  claimed  that  the  majority  were 
far  otherwise.  ''Women  are  of  two  sorts,  some  of  them  are 
wiser,  better  learned,  discreeter,  and  more  constant  than 
a  number  of  men;  but  another  and  a  worse  sort  of  them, 
and  the  most  part,  are  fond,  foolish,  wanton  flibbergibs,  / 
tatlers,  triflers,  wavering,  witless,  without  council,  feeble,/ 
careless,  rash,  proud,  dainty,  nice,  talebearers,  evesdroppers, 
rumour-raisers,  evil-tongued,  worse-minded,  and  in  every 
way  doltified  with  the  dregs  of  the  devil's  dunghill."  ^    The 

1  Neal,  I,  478. 

147 


148  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

writer  of  the  Answer  to  Milton^s  first  divorce  tract  thinks  to 
crush  the  argument  that  marriage  was  first  constituted 
for  *' solace  and  comfort  in  gifts  of  the  mind"  by  saying  that 
if  such  had  been  the  case,  ''then  it  would  have  been  every 
wayes  as  much,  yea  more  content  and  solace  to  Adam;  and 
so  to  every  man,  to  have  had  another  man  made  to  him 
of  his  Rib  in  stead  of  Eve;  this  is  apparent  by  experience, 
which  shews,  that  man  ordinarily  exceeds  woman  in  naturall 
gifts  of  the  mind."  ^  The  writers  who  take  a  more  charitable 
view  towards  womankind  usually  do  so  in  a  tone  of  conde- 
scension resulting  from  a  consciousness  of  their  own  supe- 
riority. "Man,"  says  one,  "hauing  that  diuine  Image  of 
God,  and  smelling  something  of  the  celestiall  Carrecter  of 
whom  he  tooke  his  beginning,  is  not  onely  dreadful  to  the 
moste  furious  and  proudest  beastes  vppon  earthe,  but  further 
he  hath  a  preheminence  and  authoritie  ouer  the  woman  (a 
creature  moste  noble  nexte  to  him  selfe  of  all  others)."  ^ 
It  would  take  us  too  far  afield  to  attempt  to  account  for 
the  origin  of  the  conception  of  the  inferiority  of  woman. 
In  the  history  of  evolution,  it  was  doubtless  the  result  of 
her  physical  weakness.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  her  mental 
inferiority  was  certainly  a  result,  wherever  it  existed,  of 
the  fact  that  not  only  had  the  education  of  woman  been 
wholly  neglected  in  the  past,  but  even  in  the  so-called 
"woman's  sphere,"  she  was  always  under  the  authority  and 
direction  of  her  husband.  But  a  still  greater  inferiority, 
or  rather  a  belief  in  it,  was  ascribed  to  the  sex.  This  was 
o  moral  weakness.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  belief 
in  woman's  physical  and  mental  limitations  is  far  older  than 
Christianity,  but  that  she  was  morally  weak  seems  to  be  the 
particular  contribution  of  the  early  church  fathers  to  the 
unjust   and   undignified   conception   in  which   womankind 

1  Answer  to  Doctrine  and  Discipline,  p.  12. 

'  Chelidonius,  A  most  excellent  Hystorie,  p.  183. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  149 

was  held  during  the  middle  ages  and  later  times.  This  atti- 
tude is  more  important  than  may  at  first  appear,  for  the  judg-  ^ 
ment  of  the  church,  disseminated  through  at  least  the  male 
portion  of  Europe  and  England,  prevented  any  chance  of  the 
betterment  of  woman  through  education.  Thus,  by  being 
thought  weak  and  fit  only  to  obey,  she  was  robbed  of  any  I  ^ 
chance  of  becoming  either  strong  or  intelligent.  \ 

The  causes  of  this  belief  in  woman's  lack  of  moral  strength  |  _ - 
in  sixteenth  century  England,  connect  very  closely  with  the 
interests  and  movements  we  have  been  studying.  These  ; 
causes  are  two:  the  conception  of  marriage  as  merely  a  '  I 
means  of  propagating  the  race  and  of  avoiding  promiscuous 
sexual  indulgence  (particularly  on  the  man's  part),  and  the 
teachings  of  the  church  —  drawn  chiefly  from  the  book  of 
Genesis  and  the  apostles'  commentaries  thereupon  —  that 
it  was  the  woman  who  by  her  fall  first  brought  sin  into  the 
world.^  It  is,  perhaps,  hardly  fair  to  blame  the  origin  of 
these  two  doctrines  upon  the  Christian  church,  as  both 
existed  to  some  extent  before  Christ's  day;  but  the  per- 
sistency with  which  the  early  church  fathers  clung  to  thern 
and  magnified  their  importance  for  the  benefit,  or  detriment, 
of  future  generations,  and  the  tenacity  of  the  mediaeval 
ecclesiastics'  grasp  upon  them,  despite  the  fact  that  they 
are  unsupported  by  the  teachings  of  Christ,  render  their 
ultimate  origin  of  little  or  no  account. 

We  have  already  seen  what  was  the  attitude  of  the  Roman  •— 
Catholic  Church  towards  marriage  even  as  late  as  Eliza-      ^j 
beth's  time.^    This  attitude  sprang  from  two  related  causes, 
the  supposed  sinfulness  of  marital  intercourse  and  the  evil 
nature  of  woman.    St.  Chrysostom  speaks  of  woman  as  a 
"necessary  evil,  a  natural  temptation,  a  desirable  calamity, 

^  The  fact  that  Adam  was  made  first  and  Eve  second,  she  from  Adam  "^ 

but  he  from  divine  materials,  was  also  made  much  of  in  the  case  against 
woman. 

2  See  above,  p.  120  S. 


150  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

a  domestic  peril,  a  deadly  fascination  and  a  painted  ill."  ^ 
But  if  the  nature  of  woman  was  one  of  the  ills  of  the  mar- 
riage state,  conversely  the  low  repute  in  which  marriage  was 
held  served  for  centuries  to  tarnish  the  reputation  of  woman. 

The  doctrine  of  woman's  responsibility  for  the  existence 
of  sin  in  the  world  was  well  established  by  Augustine's 
time;  indeed,  the  book  of  Genesis  would  suggest  that  it 
had  existed  from  the  time  of  its  writing,  but  it  seems  not  to 
have  been  made  much  of  until  the  early  fathers  began  their 
textual  criticism  of  the  Bible.  As  a  result  of  Eve's  part  in 
the  downfall  of  her  noble  spouse,  many  early  commentators 
could  not  conceive  the  possibility  of  her  possessing  a  par- 
ticle of  the  divine  nature,  of  which  Adam  was  the  human 
personification;  and  a  debate  of  one  thousand  years'  dura- 
tion ensued  over  the  question  of  whether  or  not  woman 
possessed  a  soul.  Feminists  today  may  congratulate  them- 
selves upon  their  early  progenitors,  for  from  the  opening  of 
this  debate  at  the  Council  of  Macon  in  585,  when  fifty-nine 
bishops  took  part,  the  weight  of  argument  seems  to  have 
continually  favored  the  affirmative.  ''Christian  women 
were  therefore  allowed  to  remain  human  beings  in  the  eyes 
of  the  clergy,  even  though  considered  very  weak  and  bad 
ones."  2  Although  by  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
this  exalted  position  was  granted  to  women,  they  were 
nevertheless  held  firmly  in  leash  by  textual  chains,  as  if 
they  were  a  race  of  Amazons,  who  once  having  bested  man 
—  in  the  apple  episode  —  were  still  likely  by  some  Machia- 
vellian policy  to  accomplish  a  similar  coup  d'etat. 

The  Bible  was  ransacked  to  provide  such  texts.  The 
writings  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  proved  to  be  the  most 
profitable  mines,  the  best  passage  of  all  being  in  St.  Paul's 
Epistle  to  Timothy. 

1  Hill,  Women  in  English  Life,  I,  ix. 

'  Gage,  Women,  Church  and  State,  p.  56. 


( 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  151 

"In  like  manner  also,  that  women  adorn  themselves  in  modest 
apparel  with  shamefacedness  and  sobriety;  not  with  broidered  hair, 
or  gold,  or  pearls,  or  costly  array; 

"But  (which  becometh  women  professing  godliness)  with  good 
works. 

"Let  the  woman  learn  in  silence  with  all  subjection. 

"But  I  suffer  not  a  woman  to  teach,  nor  to  usurp  the  authority 
over  the  man,  but  to  be  in  silence. 

"For  Adam  was  first  formed,  then  Eve. 

"And  Adam  was  not  deceived,  but  the  woman  being  deceived 
was  in  the  transgression."  * 

As  a  sample  of  what  we  find  over  and  over  on  each  of  these 
texts  and  many  similar  ones,  we  may  take  a  passage  from  a 
sermon  on  the  last,  preached  by  John  Brinsley  and  after- 
wards published  (1645)  under  the  title  of  A  Looking-Glasse 
for  Good  Women. 

"Adam  was  not  deceived,  viz.  not  immediately  by  the  Serpent: 
So  was  the  Woman  deceived,  giving  eare  to  Satan,  speaking  in 
and  by  the  Serpent,  she  was  deceived;  but  so  was  not  Adam  de- 
ceived: Deceived  indeed  he  was;  but  it  was  by  means  of  the 
Womxin,  handing  those  suggestions  unto  him,  which  she  had  received 
from  the  Serpent:  withall,  soHciting,  and  inticing  him;  to  whom 
he  yielded,  partly,  Ex  amicabili  qiuidam  benevolentia,  out  of  a  lov- 
ing and  indulgent  affection  towards  her,  and  so  was  overcome, 
even  as  Sampson  was  by  his  Delilah  and  Solomon  by  his  Wives. 

"These  two  last  Resolutions  (being  in  effect  one  and  the  same) 
we  may  safely  pitch  upon.  Adam  was  not  deceived,  viz.  so  as  the 
Woman  was  deceived:  not  firstly,  not  immediately,  so  was  the 
Woman  deceived;  and  being  so  deceived,  she  was  the  Instrument 
to  deceive  her  Husband:  So  it  foUoweth;  But  The  Woman  being 
deceived,  she  was  in  the  Transgression."  2 

^  St.  Paul,  op.  dt.,  II,  9-14.  The  first  verse  still  occurs  in  the 
marriage  service  of  the  Church  of  England.  See  also  St.  Paul,  I  Cor, 
II,  7,  and  Ephes.  V,  22-24;  and  St.  Peter,  First  Epistle  General,  III,  1. 

'  Brinsley,  op.  a«.,  p.  3.    This  kind  of  stuff  continues  for  fifty  pages. 


^. 


152  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

II.  Domestic  and  Courtly 

The  writers  of  domestic  books  take  practically  the  same 
attitude  towards  woman  as  that  held  by  the  church,  and 
base  their  directions,  for  her  conduct  upon  ecclesiastical 
teachings.  The  most  complete  brief  for  the  case  of  the 
Bible  vs.  Woman  that  I  have  seen  occurs  in  a  book  of  this 
type. 

'^  "Two  reasons  [for  woman's  subjection  to  man]  may  be  given: 
the  one  from  the  law  of  creatio;  the  other  from  the  law  of  Penalty, 
following  disobedience.  For  the  first,  The  man  (we  know)  was 
the  first  created,  as  a  perfect  Creature,  and  not  the  woman  with  him 
at  the  same  instant,  as  we  know  both  sexes  of  aU  other  Creatures 
were  contemporary:  not  so  here.  But,  after  his  constitution  and 
frame  ended,  then  was  she  thought  of.  Secondly,  she  was  not  made 
of  the  same  matter  with  the  man  equally;  but  she  was  made  and 
framed  of  the  man.  .  .  .  And  thirdly,  she  was  made  for  the  mils 
use  and  benefit,  as  a  meet  helper,  when  no  other  creature  besides 
her  was  not  able  to  do  it.  .  .  . 

"The  second  warrant  hereof  is  penall.  .  .  .  For,  since  she  would 
take  upon  her  as  a  woman  without  respect  to  the  order,  dependence, 
and  use  of  her  creation,  to  enterprise  so  sad  a  business,  as  to  jangle 
and  demurre  with  the  divell  about  so  waighty  a  point  as  her  hus- 
bands freehold,  and  of  her  own  braine  to  lay  him  and  it  under  her 
foot,  without  the  least  parlee  and  consent  of  his  .  .  .so  that,  till  she 
had  put  all  beyond  question,  and  past  amendment,  and  eaten,  she 
brought  not  the  fruit  to  him  to  eate,  and  so,  became  a  divell  to 
tempt  him  to  eate;  therefore  the  Lord  strips  her  of  this  robe  of 
honour,  accursing  her  with  this  penalty."  ^ 

Some  writers,  not  being  restrained  by  Scriptural  authority, 
use  the  subject  of  domestic  life  to  vent  their  spleen  against 
woman.  Thus  we  sometimes  find  passages  such  as  the 
following:  * 

*  Rogers,  Matrimoniall  Honovr,  p.  254  ff. 

*  See  also  quotations  below,  pp.  163-164. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES   TOWARDS  WOMAN  153 

"Deponares  hauing  tasted  the  martirdomes  of  marriage,  said, 
that  there  were  but  two  good  dayes  in  all  the  life  of  mariage,  the 
one  was  the  wedding  day,  and  the  other  the  daye  that  the  woma 
dieth,  for  that  on  the  day  of  mariage,  there  is  made  good  cheare, 
the  Bride  is  fresh  and  new,  and  all  new  things  are  pleasaunt.  .  .  . 
The  other  day  that  he  saith  is  good,  is  the  daye  wherein  the  woman 
dieth,  for  that  the  beast  being  deade,  deade  is  the  poyson,  and  that 
by  the  death  of  the  woman  the  husband  is  out  of  bondage.  In 
confirmation  whereof,  there  is  recited  a  pretie  historic  of  a  noble  Ro- 
maine,  who  the  day  after  his  mariage  .  .  .  was  verye  pensiue  and 
sorowfull,  and  being  demaunded  .  .  .  what  was  ye  occasion  of 
his  sorrow,  seeing  that  his  wife  was  so  faire,  rich,  and  come  of  a 
noble  progenie:  shewing  them  his  foote,  he  stretcheth  out  his  leg, 
saying.  My  friendes,  my  shooe  is  newe,  faire  and  well  made,  but 
you  know  not  where  about  it  doeth  hurt  and  grieue  me."  ^ 

But  although  the  woman  is  reminded  in  the  domestic 
book  of  her  inferiority  and  subserviency  to  her  lord  and 
master,  it  is  always  recommended  that  he  treat  her  with 
kindness  and  honor.  Still,  even  in  this  view  of  the  hus- 
band's attitude,  the  wife's  mental  and  moral  weakness  is 
not  lost  sight  of.  Brinsley  says:  "A  last  respect  due  unto 
the  Woman  in  regard  of  her  weaknesse  is  .  .  .  giving  honour 
unto  her.  Honour,  not  as  from  the  inferior  to  the  superior; 
but  honour  as  to  the  weaker  vessel.  Which  consisteth 
chiefly  in  three  particulars.  1.  In  hiding  their  weaknesse. 
2.  In  defending  them  against  injuries.  3.  In  providing 
what  is  meet  for  them.  All  these  wayes  nature  teacheth 
us  to  put  honour  upon  the  less  honorable  parts  of  the  bodie, 
as  the  Apostle  tells  us,  I  Cor.  12.23.  And  all  these  wayes 
both  Nature  and  Grace  should  teach  Husbands  to  give 
honour  to  their  wives."  ^    in  return  for  this  good  measure 

1  Bouaistuau,  Theatrum  Mund%  p.  136.  The  former  of  these  stories 
occurs  also  in  Nixon,  The  Dignitie  of  Man,  p.  Ill;  the  latter  in  Milton, 
Doctrine  and  Discipline,  Prose  Works,  II,  57. 

*  Brinsley,  A  Looking-Glasse  for  Good  Women,  p.  47. 


154  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

of  honor,  pressed  down  and  overflowing  on  three  separate 
counts,  women  should  look  to  their  husbands  "euermore 
to  reuerence  them,  and  to  endeuour  with  true  obedience 
and  loue  to  serue  them,  to  bee  loath  in  any  wise  to  offend 
them:  yea,  rather  to  bee  carefull  &  diligent  to  please  the,  yt 
their  soule  may  blesse  them.    And  if  .  .  .  the  wife  shall 
anger  or  displease  her  husband  .  .  .  she  ought  neuer  to 
rest,  vntill  shee  hath  pacified  him,  and  gotten  his  favour 
againe.    And  if  he  shall  chance  to  blame  her  without  a 
\    cause  .  .  .  yet  shee  must  beare  it  patiently,  and  giue  him 
\   no  vncomely  or  vnkinde  woordes  for  it:  but  euermore  looke 
vppon  him,  with  a  louing  and  chearefuU  countenance,  and 
so  rather  let  her  take  the  fault  vppon  her,  then  seeme  to 
bee  displeased."  ^ 
(^        Although  a  great  deal  of  attention  was  given  in  the  do- 
mestic books  to  woman  and  her  duties,  practically  no  books 
were  written  for  the  instruction  of  women  alone  before  the 
first  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  except  such  as  deal 
with  specific  subjects,  like  cookery,  dairying,  housekeeping, 
etc.    Vives'  book,  already  mentioned,  is  the  chief  exception 
here.    Among  a  number  of  works  written  for  the  instruction 
of  young  people,  particularly  on  the  subject  of  marriage,  I 
find  only  one  addressed  to  girls.     This  is  A  goodlie  advise 
.  .  .  touching  manage  by  Andrew  Kingsmill,  a  very  short 
treatise  appended  to  his  A  Viewe  of  mans  estate.    It  was 
written  in  1560,  but  was  not  published  until  1574,  after  the 
y' writer's  death.    Vives'  Instruction,  as  translated  by  Hyrde 
/     in  1540,  is  a  full  treatment  of  woman  from  birth  to  death, 
1      but  contains  little  that  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  more  general 
books  of  family  life.    These,  as  well  as  the  many  so-called 
Catechisms,  devote  several  chapters  to  the  various  phases  in 
the  life  of  a  woman,  among  which  are  discussed  particularly 
the  maid,  the  married  woman,  and  the  widow.     Practically 
^  R.  C,  A  Godly  Form  of  Hovseholde  Gouernement,  p.  214. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS   WOMAN  155 

all  treat  of  the  first  two,  some  include  the  third,  and  some 
add  chapters  on  stepmothers  and  old  women. 

Becon,  in  his  Catechism,  has  given  perhaps  the  fullest 
account  of  maidenhood,  which  is  supplemented  by  a  similar 
but  shorter  discussion  on  his  Boke  of  Matrimony.  The 
former  gives  nine  duties  to  be  observed  by  maids. ^  First,  * 
they  must  fear  and  serve  God.  Secondly,  they  must  obey 
their  parents.  Thirdly,  they  should  avoid  idleness,  "out'? 
of  ye  which  springeth  all  mischefe,  as  pride,  slouthfulnesse, 
banketting,  dronkenshyp,  whoredome,  adoultry,  vain  com- 
munication, bewraying  of  secretes,  cursed  speakings  &c.  to 
auoid  these  pestilences,  it  shall  become  honest  and  vertuous 
maides  to  geue  them  selues  to  honest  and  vertuous  exercises, 
to  spinning,  to  carding,  to  weauing,  to  sowing,  to  washing, 
to  wringing,  to  sweping,  to  scouring,  to  bruing,  to  bakinge, 
and  to  all  kinde  of  labors  withoute  exception,  that  become 
maides."  Fourthly,  besides  idleness,  maids  must  eschew 
*'the  runninge  about  vnto  vain  spectacles,  games,  pastimes, 
playes,  enterludes  &c."  Fifthly,  ''forasmuch  as  nothing 
doth  so  greatly  hinder  ye  good  name  and  fame  of  maids,  as 
keeping  copany  with  naughty  packs,  &  persos  of  a  dissolute 
&  wanton  life,  .  .  .  therefore  shal  it  be  requisite  that  al  godly 
maids  do  refrain  theselues  from  keping  copany  with  light, 
vain  &  wanton  persons:  whose  delite  is  in  fleshly  and  filthy 
pastimes,  as  singing,  dauncing,  leaping,  skipping,  playinge, 
kissing,  whoring  &c."  Sixthly,  "that  they  be  not  full  of  ^ 
tonge,  and  of  much  babling.  .  .  .  Except  the  grauity  of 
some  matter  do  require,  that  she  should  speak:  or  els  an 
answer  is  to  be  made  ...  let  her  kepe  silence.  For  there 
is  nothinge  that  doth  so  much  commend,  auaunce,  setforthe, 
adourne,  decke,  trim,  and  garnish  a  maid,  as  silence." 
Seventhly,  "forasmuch  as  maides  no  les  then  yonge  menne 
after  they  come  ones  to  xiiii  yeres  of  age,  are  so  desirous  to 

1  Becon,  Warckes,  Pt.  I,  f.  cccccxxxi  ff. 


156  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

be  maried,  .  .  .  notwithstanding  suche  vntimely  mariages 
are  not  to  be  commended  ...  it  shalbe  conuenient  for  al 
honest  maides,  if  they  tender  the  health  and  coseruation 
of  their  bodies  .  .  .  that  they  labor  to  the  vttermost  of 
their  power  to  suppresse  that  luste  and  desire  in  them/' 
Eighthly,  "seeinge  that  .  .  .  maides  desyre  nothinge  so 
greatly  as  galante  apparell,  and  sumptuous  raiment  .  .  . 
it  shall  not  be  vnfytting,  that  all  honest  and  godly  disposed 
maydes  cotent  them  selues  with  comely  and  semely  apparell 
.  .  .  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  gospell."  Finally, 
when  they  come  to  marry,  they  should  ''presume  not  to 
take  in  hand  so  graue,  waighty  and  earnest  matter,  nor 
entangle  them  selues  with  the  loue  of  anye  parson,  before 
they  haue  made  their  parents,  tutors,  frendes,  or  suche  as 
haue  gouemaunce  of  them  priuye  of  their  entent,  yea  and 
also  require  their  both  councel  and  consent  in  the  matter.'' 
This  set  of  rules  is  perhaps  the  fullest  given  anywhere,  but 
most  of  them  occur  more  briefly  stated  in  other  similar 
books.  One  thing  which  Becon  omits  but  which  is  par- 
ticularly interesting,  is  the  warning  sometimes  given  to 
young  girls  against  reading  ''naughtie  ballets"  and  "vaine 
romances."  Vives  has  the  fullest  list  of  the  latter,  which 
he  calls  ungracious  and  full  of  filthiness:  "in  Spaine,  Ama- 
dise,  Florisande,  Tirantey  Tristane,  and  Celestina;  ...  in 
France,  Lancelot  du  LakCf  Paris  &  Vienna,  Ponthus  and 
Sidonia,  and  Melucine;  in  Flanders,  Flori  and  White  Flower, 
Leonel  and  Cenamour,  Curias  and  Floret,  Primus  and  Thishe; 
in  England,  Parthenope,  Genarides,  Hippomadon,  William 
and  Melyour,  Libius  and  Arthur,  Guy,  Beuis,  and  many 
others."  ^ 

1  Vives,  Instruction,  f.D.  Vives  is  a  forerunner  of  Cervantes  in  the 
ridicule  he  heaps  upon  such  romances.  He  says:  "What  delight  can 
there  bee  in  those  thinges  that  be  so  plaine  and  foolish  lies?  One  killeth 
twenty  himselfe  alone,  another  killeth  thirty,  another  wounded  with  a 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS   WOMAN  157 

The  duties  of  the  married  woman  have  already  been  set  ^ 
forth  to  some  extent  and  require  no  more  than  a  brief  -^"^^f;^ 
summary  here.    Besides  obedience  and  submission  to  her      i  "' 
husband,    those   most   frequently   mentioned   are:     chaste  \'i. 
living,  the  avoidance  of  gaudy  apparel,  jewels,  and  cosmetics,    3 
the  ordering  of  the  household  so  far  as  its  master  allowed    H 
her  control,  the  suckling  of  her  babies,  and  some  part  in  the  ^^"^ 
teaching  of  her  children.     How  far  she  had  authority  within 
the  house  is  a  point  upon  which  there  seems  to  have  been 
no  definite  expression,  and  it  was  doubtless  thought  of  and 
practised   as   a   personal   matter   between   the    individual 
husband  and  wife.^   Becon  comes  as  near  as  any  to  a  definite 
statement,  where,  in  a  passage  describing  the  things  a  young 
girl  should  learn  for  her  future  service  in  life,  he  enumerates 
*' spinning,  cardinge,  weuing,  sowing,  milking,  chese,  and 
butter  making,  gouerning  of  an  house,  dressing  of  meate 
and  drink,  and  such  like."    Without  these  acquirements, 
Becon  continues,  "all  beauty,  favour,  personage,  nobilitye 
richesse,  galant  aparel,  and  whatsoeuer  can  be  reckned  more 
wherein  wome  do  most  of  al  glory,  is  nothinge  else,  then  a 

hundred  woundes,  and  left  dead,  riseth  vp  againe,  and  on  the  next 
day  made  whole  and  strong,  ouercommeth  two  Gyants  and  then  goeth 
away  loaden  with  gold  and  siluer,  and  pretious  stones,  mo  the  a  Gaily 
would  carry  away.  What  madnes  is  it  in  folkes,  to  haue  pleasure  in 
these  books?  Also  there  is  no  wit  in  them,  but  a  few  wordes  of  wanton 
lust:  which  be  spoken  to  mooue  her  minde  with  whome  they  loue,  if  it 
chance  she  is  stedfast.  .  .  .  Nor  I  neuer  heard  man  say  that  he  liked 
these  bookes:  but  those  that  neuer  touched  good  books.  And  I  my 
selfe  sometime  haue  read  in  them,  but  I  neuer  found  in  them  one 
steppe  either  of  goodnesse  or  wit."    Ibid.,  D  h. 

Bullinger,  on  the  same  subject,  says:  "[the  books  of]  Robyn  Hode/ 
Beues  of  Hampton/  Troilus/  &  such  lyke  fables  do  but  kyndle  in  lyers 
lyke  lyes  and  wanton  loue/  whyche  ought  not  in  yought  wyth  theyr 
fyrst  spettle  to  be  dronke  in/  lest  they  euer  remayne  in  them."  Christen 
state,  f.  Ixxvfc. 

Ascham's  disapproval  of  the  literature  of  romance  is  well  known. 

^  But  see  p.  237,  n.  1,  below. 


158  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

ringe  in  a  swines  snowte."  ^  No  wonder  Vives  says,  ''Great 
sadness  of  behauiour  and  arayment  is  required  in  a  wife." 

The  widow  was  given  less  attention  in  the  domestic  book 
than  either  the  maid  or  the  married  woman,  and  her  duties 
may  be  briefly  stated.  If  she  was  old,  she  should  "be 
occupyed  aboute  matters  of  God  and  about  busynesses  of 
the  congregation";  if  young,  she  should  keep  out  of  trouble. 
The  belief  that  a  young  widow  was  more  attractive  and  in 
greater  danger  from  men  than  a  maid,  seems  to  go  back  to 
St.  Paul's  time;  but  whether  this  attitude  in  the  sixteenth 
(as  well  as  in  the  twentieth)  century  is  entirely  the  result 
of  the  apostle's  teachings  or  is  founded  upon  fact,  is  a  ques- 
tion that  we  cannot  go  into  here.  At  any  rate,  according 
to  Vives,  a  young  widow  should  lead  a  cloistered  life,  and 
if  she  went  abroad  at  all,  she  should  be  accompanied  by 
"some  good  and  sad  woman"  and  should  avoid  the  company 
of  men,  especially  friars  and  priests.  On  the  other  hand, 
some  writers,  following  the  advice  of  St.  Paul  to  young 
widows,  would  have  them  marry  again  as  soon  as  possible 
and  thus  avoid  the  "daunger  of  everlasting  damnation"  — 
it  being  thought  practically  impossible  for  a  young  widow 
to  live  chaste  —  "for  how  lyghte,  vayne,  trifeling,  unhonest, 
unhousewifelike,  younge  widowes  haue  ben  in  all  ages,  and 
are  also  at  this  present  day,  experience  doth  sufficiently 
declare."  ^  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  of  the  seven  chap- 
ters given  by  Vives  to  the  subject  of  the  widow,  three  are 
devoted  to  her  behavior  towards  her  deceased  husband. 

The  references  above  to  woman  in  her  various  spheres,  to 
her  relation  to  man,  and  to  the  attitude  of  at  least  the  re- 
ligiously-minded towards  her,  represent  one  side  of  the  pic- 

^  Becon,  Worckes,  Ft.  I,  f .  DCLxxvi  h.  See  also  the  list  given  in  the 
Catechism,  p.  155,  above.  / 

*  Ibid,  f.   cccccxxix.      Cf.  the  widow   in    Dunbar's    Tua   Maryit 
wemen  and  the  wedo  (see  below,  pp.  164-165). 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS   WOMAN  159 

ture  of  woman  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
I  have  gone  into  this  in  some  detail  as  this  point  of  view 
seems  to  have  been  neglected  heretofore  and  to  be  at  present 
quite  overshadowed  by  the  numerous  discussions  of  the 
Renaissance  idea  of  woman,  which  predominated  among 
the  courtly  writers  of  Elizabeth's  reign.  The  influence  of /Ovi 
Platonism  as  revamped  in  the  Italian  Renaissance  is  well,\)[>^ 
enough  known  to  obviate  the  necessity  of  my  discussing  it 
further.^  Indeed,  it  is  quite  too  well  known,  for  students 
of  the  period,  being  saturated  with  the  conception  of 
woman  as  found  in  Italian  literature  and  Italian  court 
life  and  among  the  imitators  of  both  in  England,  seem  not 
to  have  realized  sufficiently  that  woman  as  here  portrayed 
is  as  fictitious  as  the  love  expressed  for  her  in  the  average 
Petrarchistic  sonnet. -,1.  We  should  fall  into  a  similar  error 
were  we  to  maintain,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  books  we 
have  been  examining  represent  the  true  state  of  man's 
regard  for  woman,  and  that  the  Platonistic  poetry  and 
Cortegiano  type  of  prose  writing  represent  mere  conventional-  IJ/fy 
ized  dreams  of  fair  women>i:  Each  attitude,  we  may  say'  ^** 
now,  was  a  pose,  the  one  resulting  from  the  authority  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  the  other  from  that  of  Plato  and  the  Italian 
Renaissance.  How  sincere  the  writers  in  these  two  fields 
were,  it  is  difficult  to  say;  but  at  least  it  is  safe  to  believe 
that  each  school  was  to  some  extent  true  to  an  imagination  \ 
ingrown  upon  dogmas  that  seemed  to  express  actual  life,  ' 
although  the  authors  themselves  may  not  have  been  fortu- 
nate, or  unfortunate,  enough  to  have  so  experienced  it,  j 
except  perhaps  momentarily.  In  many  cases,  however, 
the  writer  must  have  been  conscious,  at  least  at  times,  that 
he  was  a  hypocrite  and  that  his  productions  were  mere 
vapories  of  an  over-religious  or  an  over-sentimental  state  of 

^  For  a  treatment  of  this  subject,  see  Einstein,  The  Italian  Renais- 
sance in  England, 


160  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

mind.  The  spectacle  of  John  Donne,  for  instance,  on  Sunday- 
preaching  the  subjection  and  inferiority  of  woman  to  a 
newly  married  couple,  and  on  Monday  apotheosizing  his 
mistress  in  extragavant  metaphors,  will  hardly  tempt  the 
fair-minded  reader  to  accept  him  as  a  trustworthy  witness 
for  either  the  prosecution  or  the  defense  of  womankind.^ 
Similarly,  John  Knox,  who  denounced  women  as  "weak, 
frail,  impatient,  feeble,  foolish,  inconstant,  variable,  and 
lacking  the  spirit  of  council,"  was  twice  married,  was  all 
his  life  surrounded  by  women,  was  co-respondent  in  the 
alienation  of  Mrs.  Bowes  from  her  husband  and  twelve 
children,  and  was  accustomed  to  write  in  letters  to  those 
absent  such  sentiments  as,  "Dear  sister,  if  I  should  express 
the  thirst  and  langour  which  I  have  had  for  your  presence, 
I  should  appear  to  pass  measure.  .  .  .  Yea,  I  weep  and 
rejoice  in  remembrance  of  you."  ^  And  Milton  represents 
not  only  the  popular  ideal  of  woman  in  Paradise  Lost  but  also 
the  Petrarchistic  one  in  his  sonnets  to  the  ladies  of  his  Italian 
journey;  and  despite  the  difficulty  he  describes  in  his  divorce 
tract  of  choosing  a  "sweet  conversing  soul,"  seems  to  have 
been  unable  to  live  without  at  least  some  makeshift  for 
such  a  mate.  The  point  here  is  more  important  than  may 
at  first  appear,  as  it  results  in  obliging  us  to  accept  only 
cum  magna  grano  salis  the  testimony  of  all  who  have  any 
axe  to  grind,  be  it  sentimental,  religious,  or  otherwise. 

III.   Commendation  and  Satire 

However  insincere  the  attitudes  of  moralists  and  courtiers 

towards  women  may  have  been,  it  is  clear  that  the  reign 

j[<of  Elizabeth  did  a  great  deal  in  awakening  serious  men  to 

*  Donne  himself  in  early  life  made  a  clandestine  marriage  with 
Anne  More  and  was  dismissed  from  office  as  a  result. 

*  Stevenson,  John  Knox  and  his  Relations  to  Women,  in  Familiar 
Studies  of  Men  and  Books,  p.  383.    The  whole  essay  is  instructive. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  161 

the  importance  of  woman  and  her  sphere.  We  find  examples 
of  books  illustrating  this  fact  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the 
century,  as  in  the  case  of  David  Clapham's  translation  of 
Agrippa's  De  Nohilitate  &  Praecellentia  Foeminei  SexuSy 
in  1542,  Thomas  Elyot's  Defense  of  good  women,  in  1545, 
William  Bercher's  Nobylytie  off  Wymen,  in  1559,  and  two 
poems,  Gosynhyll's  The  Prayse  of  all  women,  called  Mulierum 
paean,  in  1541,  and  Edward  More's  Defense  of  women,  in 
1560.  But  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  next  century 
does  there  seem  to  have  been  anything  like  a  development 
of  a  literature  in  praise  of  woman  or  in  exposition  of  her 
affairs.  A  book  quite  similar  to  Elyot's,  except  that  it  is  ^ 
not  in  dialogue  form,  is  A  Womans  Woorth,  defended  against 
all  the  men  of  the  world,  ''proouing  them  to  be  more  perfect, 
excellent,  and  absolute  in  all  vertuous  actions  than  any 
man  of  what  qualitie  soeuer."  The  title  page  also  informs 
us  that  the  work  is  by  ''one  that  hath  heard  much,  seen 
much,  but  knowes  a  great  deal  more";  and  the  dedication 
is  signed  by  Anthony  Gibson,  who  says  that  he  has  trans- 
lated the  treatise  from  the  French  of  a  "friend  and  fellow 
servant  to  her  Majesty."  This  book  was  published  in  1599. 
Among  the  books  of  less  pretentious  titles  but  more  utilitarian 
character  and  greater  real  worth,  may  be  mentioned  The  V 
Excellency  of  good  women,  in  1613,  and  My  Ladies  Looking 
Glasse,  in  1616,  both  by  Barnaby  Rich,  Thomas  Heywood's 
Nine  Bookes  of  Various  History  concerninge  Women,  1624,  and 
Nine  the  Most  Worthy  Women  of  the  World,  1640,  Brath- 
wait's  The  English  Gentlewoman,  1631,  T.  E.'s  The  Lawes 
Resolvtions  of  W omens  Rights,  1632,  and  Samuel  TorshelFs 
The  Womans  Glorie,  1645. 

A  word  will  suffice  for  each  of  these.  The  first  of  Rich's 
two  small  books  is  sufficiently  described  by  its  subtitles  — 
"The  honour  and  estimation  that  belongeth  vnto  them, 
The  infallible  markes  whereby  to  know  them."    The  Look-  , 


162  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  BELATIONS 

ing  Glasse  is  merely  one  of  the  many  books  on  the  evils  and 
immorality  of  the  time,  and  deals  as  much  with  men  as 
with  women.  Thomas  Heywood  shows  his  interest  in 
woman  both  in  his  plays  and  in  the  books  before  us.  The 
Various  History  is  a  folio  volume  of  466  pages,  divided  into 
nine  books  on  various  feminine  types,  the  first  eight  of  which 
contain  histories  and  anecdotes  of  particular  women  of 
fame,  almost  all  from  ancient  history,  and  several  essays 
of  a  general  nature  on  woman  and  her  characteristics.  The 
ninth  book  is  made  up  entirely  of  such  essays.  The  volume 
on  the  whole  is  a  veritable  storehouse  of  historical,  tradi- 
tionary, and  fictitious  stories,  and  contains  a  considerable 
amount  of  verse  both  original  and  translated.  It  does  not, 
however,  throw  much  light  upon  the  contemporary  English 
woman.  The  Nine  Most  Worthy  Women  presents  history 
only,  in  the  form  of  the  lives  of  three  famous  Jews  — 
Deborah,  Judith,  and  Esther;  three  Gentiles  —  Boadicea, 
Penthesilaea,  and  Artimesia;  and  three  Christians  — 
Elphreda  (daughter  of  Alfred  the  Great),  Margaret  (wife 
of  Henry  VI),  and  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  Lawes  Resolvtions 
jby  the  unknown  T.  E.^  is  entirely  a  legal  work,  and  although 
uninteresting  for  us,  is  particularly  important  in  showing 
the  increased  recognition  of  woman's  position  in  civil  affairs. 
It  is  a  thorough  treatise  of  her  rights  before  the  law.  The 
Womans  Glorie  is  an  ordinary  conduct  book  for  women, 
her  ''glorie"  consisting  in  properly  filling  her  part  in  the 
family.  Brathwait's  English  Gentlewoman  represents  the 
culmination  of  the  writing  upon  women.  It  is  a  book  of 
some  240  pages  devoted  entirely  to  feminine  interests.  Its 
chapters  treat  separately  apparel,^  behavior,  complement, 
decency,  education,  fancy,  gentility,  and  honor.  From 
these  headings  it  may  be  seen  that  the  work  is  a  general 
one  of  manners  and  conduct  rather  than,  like  Vives'  In- 
struction, one  concerned  with  the  different  stages  and  con- 
^  The  British  Museum  Catalogue  suggests  Thomas  Edwards. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES   TOWARDS  WOMAN  163 

ditions  of  woman's  life.  Mention  is  made  of  Vives'  book 
and  also  of  Erasmus,  from  which  fact,  as  well  as  from  the 
recurrence  of  certain  anecdotes,  we  may  believe  that  Brath- 
wait  knew  to  some  extent  the  domestic  books  of  the  period. 
He  mentions  also  the  Italian  type  of  courtier  and  lady,  and 
shows  himself  familiar  with  the  Italian  point  of  view  by 
ridiculing  the  contemporary  love  poetry.  Although  he  is 
a  little  too  much  saturated  with  the  ecclesiastical  idea  of 
female  humility,  advising  the  gentlewoman  that  "the  way 
for  you  to  ascend  is  first  to  descend,"  he  presents  on  the 
whole  a  very  sane  picture  of  woman  as  she  should  be,  and 
one  not  greatly  different  from  the  English  ideal  of  today. 

Despite  these  books  in  commendation  of  the  gentle  sex, 
less  complimentary  writing  continued,  reminiscent  of  the  time 
when  woman  figured  in  literature  principally  as  the  object 
of  satire.  In  1637,  an  anonymous  writer  says:  "In  turn- 
ing over  the  leaves  of  some  both  moderne  and  foreigne  writers, 
I  have  met  with  so  many  satyricall  invectives  aimed  directly 
against  it  [the  feminine  sex]  and  some  of  them  so  pathetically 
bitter,  that  I  am  halfe  perswaded  they  had  forgot  them- 
selves to  have  been  borne  of  mothers."  ^  It  may  have  been 
this  author's  misfortune  to  have  run  across  A  Discovrse  of 
the  Married  and  Single  Life,  or  Hercules  Tasso's  part  of 
Of  Mariage  and  Wiuing.  Both  of  these  treatises,  like 
Bansley's  Pryde  and  abuse  of  women  (1540-50),  are  such 
diatribes  against  womankind  that  one  is  inclined  to  class 
them  with  those  Torquato  Tasso  speaks  of  as  "too  too  ridic- 
ulous." The  parting  shot  from  the  former  is,  "Yet  let  mee 
aduise  thee,  that  with  thine  eyes  shut,  thy  nose  stopt,  thy 
fist  closed,  &  thy  stomack  armed,  thou  will  take  thy  wife 
as  a  medicine  of  Rubarbe."  ^    Hercules  Tasso  concludes: 

"  (Friend)  marry  when  thou  please,  yet  thou  shalt  find 
Thy  wife  bad  alwaies,  and  but  vse  her  ill 
^  A  Curtaine  Lecture,  p.  5. 
2  Op.  ait.,  p.  115. 


J 


164  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

And  she  is  worse,  but  vse  her  well  and  kind 
She  is  worser  then,  and  so  continue  will: 
Yet  is  she  good  (if  she  but  once  would  die) 
But  better,  if  she  packt  before  thy  seKe, 
But  best  of  all,  if  she  went  speedily, 
Leaning  behind  to  thee  her  hoorded  wealth/' ^ 

But  neither  these  two  books  nor  others  of  similar  nature 
can  be  called  satire;  they  are  invective  pure  and  simple. 
Nevertheless,  there  was  satire  on  the  subject  of  woman, 
especially  the  married  woman,  just  as  there  had  been  ever 
since  Chaucer's  day  and  before  that.  This  is  found  every- 
where except  in  religious  books  and  prosaic  household  direct- 
ories, such  as  many  we  have  been  studying.  The  origin 
of  the  genre,  which  was  contemporary  with  Chaucer,  seems 
to  have  been  in  France  and  took  the  form  of  warnings  against 
marriage,  as  in  such  a  piece  as  Les  quime  joyes  deis  Manage, 
which  afterwards  became  the  groundwork  for  Dekker's 
Bachelars  Banquet.  Chaucer  himself,  although  inclined 
to  poke  fun  at  the  sex,  was  certainly  on  the  side  of  its  defense 
in  the  so-called  marriage  group  of  the  Canterbury  Tales, 
His  successor,  Douglas,  said  of  him  that  he  "was  ever.  Got 
wait,  wemenis  friend,"  and  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that 
his  attitude  in  the  tales  told  in  reply  to  the  Wife  of  Bath 
and  in  the  Legend  of  Good  Women  was  a  sincere  one.  Never- 
theless, Chaucer's  championing  of  woman  partook  some- 
what of  the  nature  of  a  weather-cock  on  a  gusty  day.  The 
Wife  of  Bath  is  representative  of  a  succession  of  female  Blue- 
beards, of  whom  she  may  have  been  the  prototype.  The 
hoke  of  Mayd  Emlyn,  c.  1530,  contains  the  most  extended 
portrait  of  such  a  character,  to^whom  may  be  likened  the 
adventuress  in  the  Twelve  mery  gestys  of  one  called  Edyth 
and  the  widow  in  Dunbar's  The  Tua  Maryit  wemen  and  the 
wedo.    Married  life  came  in  for  more  direct  satire  in  ballads 

*  Tasso,  op.  dt.,  f.  G4. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  165 

such  as  A  Complaynt  of  them  that  be  to  soone  maryed,  The 
Payne  and  sorowe  of  euyll  Maryage,  and  many  from  the  pro- 
lific pen  of  Martin  Parker,  as  well  as  in  a  few  less  ephemeral 
works  like  Dunbar's  Tua  Maryit  wemen.  In  the  whole  of 
this  group,  the  satire  on  women  is  incidental  to  the  accounts 
of  married  life  and  the  warnings  against  it.  Dunbar's 
poem,  like  The  Schole-howse  of  womenj  written  in  reply  to 
Gosynhyirs  Prayse  of  all  women,  presents  marriage  and  its 
hardships  entirely  from  the  woman's  point  of  view.  In  the 
former,  the  widow  advises  the  afflicted  wives,  after  listening 
to  their  tales  of  woe,  to  make  the  best  of  their  bad  bargains 
by  consoling  themselves,  as  she  had  done,  with  "othir 
bachilleris  blyth  blumyng  in  youth  " ;  in  the  latter,  a  dialogue 
between  an  old  gossip  and  a  young  wife,  the  elder,  while 
appearing  to  council  her  friend  in  regard  to  her  sufferings, 
plays  Job's  comforter  by  reciting  the  evils  and  weaknesses 
of  womankind,  with  illustrations  drawn  from  history  and 
current  jest-books.  In  the  years  1560  to  1570,  there  was 
quite  an  outburst,  which  seems  to  have  abated  thereafter, 
of  satirical  poems  against  the  married  woman  —  The  Proude 
Wyves  Paternoster,  An  hundred  poyntes  of  evell  huswrifrye, 
A  Commyssion  unto  all  those  whose  wyves  be  thayr  masters, 
A  Shrewde  and  Curste  Wyfe  lapped  in  Morrelles  skin,  and 
others  —  but  these  contribute  little  that  is  new  to  the  type.^ 
In  all  these  would-be  satires,  in  which  the  weapon  em- 
ployed is  the  bludgeon  rather  than  the  rapier,  we  find  that, 
just  as  the  courtier  pretended  to  regard  woman  as  the  queen  / 
of  love  and  beauty,  and  the  sanctimonious  writer  looked  upon 
her  as  the  handmaid  of  the  devil,  or  at  best  as  a  weak  and 
sinning  specimen  of  human  kind,  so  the  satirist  assumed 
a  conventional  point  of  view  and  portrayed  her  from  that 
aspect.    The  two  things  which  women  had  been  especially  '^ 

^  For  further  account  and  bibliography  of  satire  against  women, 
see  Camb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  II,  437  ff.,  Ill,  98  ff.  and  551  ff. 


/ 


¥ 


166  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

instructed  to  do,  from  the  time  of  St.  Paul  onward,  were 
to  be  subservient  to  their  husbands  and  to  avoid  costly 
raiment.^  Whether  or  not  these  warnings  caused  women 
to  do  exactly  the  opposite,  so  that  the  satire  was  directed 
against  actual  conditions,  we  cannot  say,  though  one  is  in- 
clined to  doubt  very  much  if  such  were  the  case;  at  any  rate, 
these  two  points  furnish  the  casus  belli  for  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  satire  against  woman.  Of  course,  her  other 
occasional  attributes  were  not  neglected,  such  as  jealousy, 
especially  in  the  case  of  a  woman  married  the  second  time, 
her  propensity  for  continuous  talking,  her  extravagance, 
her  love  of  pleasure,  her  temper.  It  is  noteworthy,  too, 
that  as  St.  Paul's  words  were  directed  against  married  women, 
so  the  satire  is  chiefly  at  their  expense.  Chaucer's  Wife  of 
Bath  is  an  excellent  example  of  these  points.  She  had  been 
married  five  times,  having  mastered  the  life  and  death  of 
each  of  her  husbands,  she  flaunted  her  gaudy  apparel  and 
lewd  personality  in  the  faces  of  her  fellow  pilgrims,  and  she 
told  a  story  illustrative  of  woman's  desire  for  sovereignty. 

"Women  desyren  to  have  sovereyntee 
As  wel  over  hir  housbond  as  hir  love 
And  for  to  been  in  maistrie  him  above."  * 

Descendants  of  the  Wife  of  Bath  may  be  found  in  English 
literature  without  break  throughout  Elizabethan  times  and 
beyond.  In  the  middle  of  the  century,  "  Walter  Wedlocke  " 
thus  slyly  defends  woman's  love  of  sovereignty: 

"Surely  the  prehiminence  that  wyues  doth  couette  at  theyr 
husbands  handes  by  vertue  of  that  humour  is  none  other,  but  onele 
to  haue  lybertie  in  three  kynde  of  ^thynges,  which  is,  to  saye  what 
they  wyll,  to  haue  what  they  wyll,  and  to  do  what  they  wyl,  wherin 

1  These  two  warnings,  hardly  changed  from  their  original  Biblical 
phraseology,  to  this  day  form  part  of  the  marriage  ceremony  of  the 
Chm*ch  of  England. 

*  Chaucer,  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale  1.  182. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS   WOMAN  167 

you  know  the  husbande  maye  easely  here  with  them,  and  surely 
doyng  so,  they  are  the  most  quyet  and  comfortablest  creatures, 
that  euer  were  ordeyned  for  man."  ^ 

Before  the  introduction  of  the  Italian  and  Spanish  fashions 
in  clothes,  the  greater  part  of  both  serious  and  frivolous 
writing  against  woman  was  directed  towards  preserving 
her  subserviency  and  condemning  her  attempts  at  sover- 
eignty. At  this  time,  the  only  satire  entirely  against  female 
attire  that  I  have  found  was  Lindsay's  Syde  Taillis;  but  with 
the  coming  of  foreign  and  exaggerated  styles  of  dress  and 
the  greater  attention  given  to  clothes  by  both  men  and 
women,  satirical  writing  on  such  love  of  display  received 
a  fresh  and  powerful  stimulus. 

Despite  the  works  discussed  above,  the  greater  part  of 
the  satire  against  women,  especially  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
century,  was  incidental  to  some  other  piece  of  work,  as  it 
had  been  earlier  in  the  case  of  the  writings  of  Chaucer  and 
John  Heywood.  For  this  reason,  it  is  impossible  to  trace 
its  history  more  closely  here.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  running  parallel  with  other  writing 
on  the  subject  of  women,  we  find  the  genre  coming  to  life 
again,  and  here  the  foibles  of  dress  are  dealt  with  to  a  far 
greater  extent  than  formerly.  Gosson's  Pleasant  Quippes 
for  Upstart  Newfangled  Gentlewomen,  in  1595,  is  a  case  in 
point,  the  title  page  of  which  describes  it  as  a  satirical  poem 
against  the  ''fantastical  foreign  Toyes  day  lie  used  in  Women's 
Apparell."  Dekker's  The  Bachelars  Banquet,  in  1603, 
is  more  inclusive,  exhibiting  the  ''humours"  of  women  of 
different  types  and  in  different  situations.  This  is  the 
most  thorough  satirical  treatment  of  women  that  I  know 
of.  The  drama,  in  such  plays  as  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew, 
The  Silent  Woman,  and  others,  contributed  its  quota.    The 

*  Wedlocke,  Image  of  Idlenesse,  f .  Ei  b. 


168  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

years  1615-1620  saw  two  controversies  on  the  subject. 
One  was  started  by  Joseph  Swetnam  ^  with  The  Araign- 
ment  of  Lewde,  idle,  froward,  and  vnconstant  women,  in  1615, 
which  was  answered  in  1616  by  the  anonymous  Asylum 
Veneris,  or  a  Sanctuary  for  Ladies,  etc.,  in  1617  by  Constantia 
Munda  ^  with  The  Worming  of  a  mad  Dogge:  or,  a  Soppe  for 
Cerberus  the  laylor  of  Hell,  by  Ester  Sowernam  ^  with  Ester 
hath  hanged  Haman,  etc,  by  Rachel  Speght  with  A  Mouzellfor 
Melastomus,  the  Cynicall  Bayter  of,  and  foule  mouthed  Barker 
against  Evahs  sex,  and  in  1620  by  an  anonymous  comedy 
entitled  Swetnam  the  woman-hater,  arraigned  by  women. 
The  replies  are,  of  course,  in  defense  of  the  sex.  There  is 
much  humor  in  Swetnam's  little  book,  and  its  popularity 
was  great.  Of  the  jealousy  of  women  married  a  second 
time,  he  tells  this  story: 

"Another  [man]  hauing  married  a  widdow,  and  within  a  while 
after  they  were  married,  she  went  out  into  the  garden,  and  there 
finding  her  husbands  shirt  hang  close  on  the  hedge  by  her  maides 
smock,  she  went  presently  and  hanged  herselfe  for  a  iealous  conceit 
that  she  tooke,  and  a  merry  fellow  asked  the  cause  why  she  hanged 
herselfe,  and  being  tolde  it  was  for  iealousie:  I  would  said  he  that 
all  trees  did  beare  such  fruit." » 

The  second  little  passage  of  arms  on  the  subject  consisted 
of  one  book  against  women  and  two  replies.  These  are: 
Hie  Mvlier^  or,  the  Man-Woman;  Being  a  Medicine  to  cure 
the  Coltish  Disease  of  the  Staggers  in  the  Masculine-Fem- 
inines  of  our  Time;  Haec-Vir;  or.  The  Womanish  Man: 
Being  an  Answer e  to  a  late  Booke  intitulit  Hic-Mulier;  and 
Muld  Sacke:  or  The  Apologie  of  Hic-Mulier:  To  the  late 
Declamation  against  her.  All  three  books  are  anonymous 
and  give  the  impression  of  being  by  the  same  writer.    Muld 

1  Swetnam  issued  his  book  under  the  name  of  Thomas  Teltruth,  but 
his  identity  was  known  to  the  writers  of  the  answers. 

*  Constantia  Manda  and  Ester  Sowernam  are  probably  fictitious 
names. 

'  Swetman,  op.  cU.,  p.  63.    This  is  an  old  tale. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  169 

Sacke  is  dated  1620,  and  the  other  two  are  probably  of  the 
same  year  or  very  shortly  before.  The  first  is  against  the 
mannish  woman;  the  second,  being  a  dialogue,  cuts  both 
ways;  the  third  is  principally  against  foppish  men.^  There 
is  not  much  wit  in  any  of  them  —  more  invective  than 
satire.  There  is  good  satire  in  the  two  jest-books  above  \ 
mentioned,  A  Curtaine  Lecture,  1637,  and  ArH  asleepe  \ 
Husband? f  1640;  but  space  forbids  further  discussion  of 
this  subject. 

IV.  Historical  and  General  View 

In  attempting  to  formulate  an  opinion  of  woman^s  posi- 
tion in  Elizabeth's  time,  we  shall  get  a  fairer  and  more 
fundamental  view  by  examining  historical  and  biographical 
facts  than  by  studying  the  writings  of  moralists,  lovers,  and  ^ 
satirists.  These  writers  are  helpful  in  furnishing  detail 
and  color  to  the  picture  and  in  distinguishing  individuals 
from  the  mass,  but  history  will  give  us  a  clearer  idea  of  the 
general  character  of  the  woman  of  the  day,  to  which  the 
minor  features,  in  one  case  or  another,  are  to  be  attached. 
For  whether  the  individual  was  a  household  drudge,  a  queen 
of  love,  or  a  Wife  of  Bath,  she  was  first  of  all  a  woman, 
and  as  the  philosopher  characteristically  observed,  "but  a 
woman."  H 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  previous  to  Elizabeth's  reign 
woman  was  considered  a  very  inferior  creature.  The  neglect 
of  her  education,  the  conditions  of  marriage  and  divorce, 
the  piggishness  of  the  average  home,  and  the  scarcity  of 
women  of  ability  and  prominence,  all  put  this  fact  beyond 

^  The  womanish  man  became  an  object  of  satire,  as  in  Decker's 
Gulls  Hornbook  as  a  result  of  Italian  foppery  of  dress  and  manners,  in 
the  same  way  as  did  the  woman.  A  good  deal  of  such  satire  was  carried 
on  in  the  drama,  as  in  the  case  of  the  comedies  of  Jonson,  Middleton, 
Marston  and  Field. 


i 

170  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

question.  But  conditions  for  the  betterment  of  the  sex 
began  long  before  this  time.  Henry  III  was  a  great  patron 
of  the  home  and  was  influential  in  improving  housing  condi- 
tions.i  Henry  IV  showed  his  interest  in  womankind  by 
extolling  the  writings  of  Christine  de  Pisan,  the  well  known 
champion  of  woman,  and  inviting  her  to  his  court.  The 
works  of  Juliana  Berners,  the  first  English  literary  woman 
of  fame,  were  widely  read.  Thomas  More  was  a  believer  in 
female  education,  taking  his  ideas  from  Italy,  and  his 
daughters  were  said  by  Vives  to  ''perfectly  fulfill  all  the 
points  of  a  good  woman."  ^  Queen  Catherine,  the  wife  of 
Henry  VIII,  after  the  abominable  treatment  she  received 
at  the  hands  of  her  royal  spouse,  became  a  national  heroine 
in  the  eyes  of  those  not  under  the  King's  thumb.^  Before 
Elizabeth's  reign,  and  to  a  greater  extent  during  it,  Italian 
books  were  imported,  translated,  and  imitated,  Italian 
architecture  was  introduced,  Italian  culture  and  court  life 
were  adopted  as  far  as  possible,  and  the  Renaissance  homage 
was  paid,  whether  sincerely  or  not,  to  the  women  of  nobility 
as  well  as  to  many  others. 

These  facts  are  well  known.  Two  others  are  worthy  of 
attention.  The  one  is  the  new  and  higher  attitude  toward 
marriage,  as  taught  by  the  Reformers  of  Germany  and  their 
followers  in  England,  particularly  the  Puritans,  which  has 

^  For  early  housing  conditions  and  Henry  Ill's  patronage  of  archi- 
tecture, see  Sparrow,  The  English  House,  chaps.  II  and  VII,  respectively. 

2  Vives,  Instruction,  f.  C5. 

^  Speaking  of  her,  Vives  says:  "If  suche  incredible  vertue  hadde 
fortuned  then,  wh6n  honor  was  the  rewarde  of  vertue,  thys  woma  had 
dusked  the  brightnesse  of  the  Heroes,  and  as  a  diuine  thynge  and  a 
godlye  sente  downe  from  heauen,  had  bene  prayed  vnto  in  temples, 
although  she  lacke  no  teples,  for  there  can  not  be  erected  vnto  her  a 
more  ample  or  a  more  magnificente  temple  then  that,  the  whiche  euery 
man  among  al  nations  marueyUnge  at  her  vertues,  haue  in  theyr  owne 
heartes  buylded  and  erected."    Office  and  duetie,  f.  Eiiii. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  171 

been  suJSiciently  set  forth  in  a  previous  chapter.^  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  the  average  man  had  ever  undertaken 
matrimony  for  the  two  causes  originally  sanctioned  by  the 
church,  —  the  begetting  of  children  and  the  avoidance  of 
sexual  sin  —  but  the  ecclesiastical  recognition  among  Prot- 
estant sects  of  the  possibility  of  woman's  occupying  a  higher 
position  in  matrimonial  society  than  that  of  a  mere  instru- 
ment for  carnal  desires,  is  important  in  marking  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end  of  the  degradation  she  had  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  the  church.  The  attempts  to  put  woman  on  the 
same  footing  as  man  in  matters  of  divorce,  although  un- 
successful, show  also  a  tendency  to  regard  her  as  an  equal 
partaker  with  him  in  the  state  of  wedlock.  Nevertheless, 
despite  these  facts,  the  church  as  a  whole  consistently  main- 
tained the  inferiority  of  woman  and  sought  to  instil  into  her 
an  entire  submission  and  obedience  to  her  husband  in  all 
family  affairs.^  Moreover,  wife  beating  continued  to  be 
practised  under  the  sanction  of  the  law.^ 

The  second  important  factor  in  raising  woman's  position 
was  Elizabeth  herself.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
Reformers  in  England  had  been  persecuted  and  driven  into 
exile  by  Queen  Mary.  John  Knox  and  his  congregation 
had  also  been  proscribed  in  Scotland  by  Regent  Mary  of 
Guise.  The  bitter  opposition  to  the  Reformers  by  Mary 
Tudor,  Mary  of  Guise,  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  in  France, 
together  with  the  fact  that  female  rule  in  Europe  was  pretty 
generally  considered  an  anomaly,  led  Knox  to  start  a  con- 
troversy against  woman  rulers  in  general.  In  accordance 
with  the  Biblical  teaching  already  noted  that  women  should 

1  See  above,  p.  120  ff. 

2  The  marriage  sermons  of  John  Donne  (Works,  vol.  IV)  are  excellent 
examples  of  the  changing  yet  conservative  attitude  of  the  time  on  this 
subject, 

'  For  discussion  of  this  subject  and  writing  thereupon,  see  JeaJBfre- 
son,  Brides  and  Bridals,  I,  317  ff 


u^ 


172  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

not  hold  positions  of  authority  over  men,^  he  attacked  all 
queens  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  The  first  Blast  of  the  Trumpet 
against  the  Monstrous  Regiment  of  Women,  which  was  not 
long  in  ''wakening  all  the  echoes  of  Europe."  But  unfor- 
tunately for  him,  Queen  Mary,  against  whom  it  was  prin- 
cipally written,  died  the  year  of  its  publication,  Elizabeth 
came  to  the  throne  as  a  patron  of  Protestancy,  and  the  exiles 
on  the  continent  trooped  back  to  England  to  live  under  the 
protection  of  their  female  champion.  This  put  Knox  in 
an  awkward  situation.  In  addition,  John  Aylmer,  after- 
wards Bishop  of  London,  replied  to  the  Scotchman's  pam- 
phlet with  An  Harhorwe  for  faithfull  and  trewe  Subjectes 
against  the  late  hloune  Blaste,  etc.^  The  result  of  this  con- 
troversy, which  was  more  extended  than  the  brief  note 
here  indicates,^  was  that  Elizabeth  secured  more  firmly 
than  ever  her  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  as  a  defender 
of  the  faith  and  a  Portia  come  to  judgment,  and  Knox  was 
reduced  to  the  ignominious  position  of  having  to  eat  his 
own  words  and  swear  allegiance.  This  he  not  only  did, 
but  showed  in  addition,  by  a  series  of  textual  quibbles,  that 
his  pamphlet  did  not  attack  Elizabeth's  supremacy  at  all. 
Besides  appearing  as  a  champion  of  Protestancy,  although 
a  bitter  enemy  to  its  more  radical  sects,  Elizabeth  occupied 
a  position  in  literary  England  similar  to  that  of  Laura  in 
the  eyes  of  Petrarch  or  Beatrice  in  those  of  Dante.  Even 
after  her  death  poets  and  prose  writers  continued  extravagant 
praise  of  her.    Thomas  Hejrwood  writes  in  1640: 

"As  the  most  famous  Painter  of  his  Time,  Apelles,  to  frame  the 
picture  of  one  Venus,  had  at  once  exposed  to  his  view  an  hundred 

I  St.  Paul,  I  Tim.  II,  12. 

*  Aylmer  is  another  example  of  the  inconsistency  of  writers  on 
women.    See  his  opinion  of  the  sex  expressed  above,  p.  147. 

'  For  full  discussion  of  this  controversy,  see  Stevenson,  John  Knox 
and  his  Relations  to  Women. 


CONTEMPORARY   ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  173 

of  the  most  choyce  and  exquisite  Virgins,  of  Greece,  to  take  from 
one  the  smoothest  brow,  from  a  second,  the  most  sparkling  eye, 
fete]  ...  so  in  the  accurate  expression  of  this  rare  Heroicke 
Elizabeth,  should  I  peruse  all  the  ancient,  and  Authenticke  Histo- 
ries, and  out  of  them  select  the  hves  of  the  most  vertuous  Ladyes, 
for  their  rare  and  admirable  endowments  .  .  .  (whether  Piety, 
or  Virginall  purity;  Beauty,  and  Bounty;  Majesty,  and  mag- 
nanimity; Language,  and  learning;  poUiticke  Governement,  or 
practice  of  goodnesse;  pitty  of  forraigne  distressed  nations,  or 
indulgence  over  her  owne  Natives,  &c.)  Nay,  what  praeceUing 
vertue  soever,  was  commendable  in  any  one  particular,  or  all  in 
general,  may,  without  flattery  be  justly  conferred  on  her."  ^ 

Nor  were  other  ladies  of  fashion  and  attainments  lacking. 
The  three  daughters  of  Sir  Anthony  Coke  were  as  accom- 
plished as  Elizabeth  herself,  and  surpassed  her  in  marrying 
brilliantly,  one  becoming  the  mother  of  Francis  Bacon. 
The  classical  learning  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  is  commented  upon 
by  Roger  Ascham,  who  discovered  her  one  day  reading 
Plato  in  the  original.  Jane,  Countess  of  Westmorland,  the 
daughter  of  John  Fox,  was  said  to  bear  comparison  with 
the  greatest  scholars  of  the  age.  Dorothy  Leigh,  one  of 
the  few  woman  writers  of  the  time,  published  a  volume, 
The  Mother's  Blessing,  dedicated  to  Elizabeth,  which  ran 
to  fourteen  editions  by  1629.  Mary  Sidney,  afterwards  the 
famous  Countess  of  Pembroke,  held  a  ^' court  of  love  and 
learning''  at  Wilton  Place,  like  those  at  Urbino  and  Ferrara, 
where  many  of  the  leading  literary  men  of  the  day  were  to 
be  found.  She  was  probably  the  most  thorough  and  most\ 
Italianate  lady  of  Elizabethan  England.  But  these  women  ^^ 
represent  only  the  aristocracy  of  the  country,  and  it  seems 
to  have  been  a  principle  of  the  age  that  such  ladies  might 
enjoy  some  privileges  forbidden  their  humbler  sisters.^ 

1  Heywood,  Most  Worthy  Women,  p.  184. 

'  "Thus,"   says   Stevenson,    "Margaret  of  Navarre  wrote  books 
with  great  acclamation,  and  no  one,  seemingly,  saw  fit  to  call  her  con- 


174  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

Moreover,  one  is  inclined  to  distrust  the  roseate  light 
with  which  these  ''great  ladies"  were  surrounded  by  their 
admirers.  The  historian  would  hardly  recognize  Elizabeth 
from  Heywood's  picture  of  her  or  from  Spenser's  Gloriana 
or  Lyly's  Cynthia.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  innumer- 
able goddess-Uke  mistresses  of  the  time.  Carew's  Coelia 
appears  as  real  in.  To  a  Strumpet,^  when  the  poet  lost  his 
temper  and  exhausted  his  vituperative  power,  as  she  does 
in  A  Rapture,  when  she  consented  to  "be  kind.''  And  at 
the  other  end  of  the  scale  from  the  sonnet  sequences  and 
similar  poetry  in  praise  of  women,  we  have  such  malicious 
\  diatribes  against  the  sex  as  have  already  been  mentioned. 
!  Nevertheless,  the  position  of  women  of  learning  and  culture 
]  and  the  homage  paid  them,  as  well  as  the  ideaUzation  of  the 
less  worthy  members  of  society,  cannot  have  failed  to  con- 
tribute in  raising  the  general  estimate  of  woman  considerably 


R^bove  that  of  preceding  periods. 


The  letters  of  foreigners  furnish  excellent  evidence  of  the 
position  of  the  English  woman  of  the  time.  Many  speak  of 
her  beauty,  her  charm,  and  her  lavishness  of  dress;  and 
although  the  subserviency  of  the  wife  to  the  husband  is 
remarked  upon,  it  seems  agreed  that  she  was  allowed  greater 
freedom  than  in  other  countries.  Indeed,  a  popular  saying 
on  the  continent  was,  "England  is  a  paradise  for  women,  a 

duct  in  question;  but  Mademoiselle  de  Gournay,  Montaigne's  adopted 
daughter,  was  in  controversy  with  the  world  as  to  whether  a  woman 
might  be  an  author  without  incongruity.  Thus,  too,  we  have  Theodore 
Agrippa  dAubign6  writing  to  his  daughters  about  the  learned  women 
of  his  century,  and  cautioning  them  in  conclusion,  that  the  study  of 
letters  was  unsuited  to  ladies  of  middling  station  and  should  be  re- 
served for  princesses.  And  once  more,  ...  we  shall  find  .  .  .  the 
Abbot  of  Brant6me  claiming  ...  a  privilege,  or  rather  a  duty,  of 
free  love  for  great  princesses,  and  carefully  excluding  other  ladies  from 
the  same  gallant  dispensation."     Familiar  Studies,  p.  332. 

1  Printed  only  in  my  article  on  Carew,  Mod.  Lang.  Rev.,  July,  1916, 
and  there  only  in  part. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  175 

prison  for  servants,  and  a  hell  for  horses."  One  writer  says, 
"The  women  there  are  charming,  and  by  nature  so  mighty 
pretty,  as  I  have  scarcely  ever  beheld,  for  they  do  not  falsify, 
paint  or  bedaub  themselves  as  in  Italy  and  other  places; 
but  they  are  somewhat  awkward  in  their  style  of  dress;  for 
they  dress  in  splendid  stuffs,  and  many  a  one  wears  three 
cloth  gowns  or  petticoats,  one  over  the  other."  ^  The  writer 
here  was  evidently  fortunate  in  his  acquaintances,  as  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  the  English  woman  was  quite 
accustomed  to  falsify,  paint,  and  bedaub  herself  after  the 
Italian  fashion.  A  Dutchman  gives  us  a  fuller  account: 
"Although  the  women  there  are  entirely  in  the  power  of 
their  husbands  except  for  their  lives,  yet  they  are  not  kept 
so  strictly  as  they  are  in  Spain  or  elsewhere.  Nor  are  they 
shut  up  but  they  have  the  free  management  of  the  house  or 
housekeeping.  .  .  .  They  go  to  market  to  buy  what  they 
like  to  eat.  They  are  well  dressed,  fond  of  taking  it  easy,  and 
commonly  leave  the  care  of  household  matters  and  drudgery 
to  their  servants.  ...  All  the  rest  of  their  time  they  employ 
in  walking  or  riding,  in  playing  at  cards  and  otherwise,  in 
visiting  their  friends  and  keeping  company  .  .  .  and  all 
this  with  the  permission  and  knowledge  of  their  husbands. " 
Further  on,  the  same  writer  says,  "The  girls  who  are  not  yet 
married  are  kept  much  more  rigorously  and  strictly  than  in 
the  Low  Countries.  "2  In  regard  to  the  married  woman's 
going  abroad,  Thomas  Heywood  upholds  this  foreigner's 
account.  He  condemns  the  French  proverb  for  the  conduct 
of  women,  ^^La  Femme  in  La  Maison,  et  La  Jambe  rompue, 
that  is,  let  the  woman  be  in  the  house  and  her  legge  broke," 
and  approves  rather  the  practice  of  "allowing  both  their 
features  and  fames  a  liberall  freedome  to  undergoe  any 

1  Keichel  (1585),  trans,  in  Rye's  England  as  seen  by  ForeignerSf 
p.  89. 

*  van  Miteren,  in  Rye,  ibid.,  p.  77  ff. 


176  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

publicke  censure. "  ^  Thus  the  cloistered  life  of  woman  of 
feudal  days  had  disappeared  along  with  most  of  the  false 
sentiment  of  chivalry.  These  descriptions  manifestly  deal 
only  with  women  of  the  better  classes,  but  a  similar  or  per- 
haps greater  liberty  of  the  sex  is  shown  to  have  existed 

/^    ^among  the  working  classes  by  the  fact  that  the  trade  guilds 

(     Ty^ere,  for  the  most  part,  open  to  women  as  well  as  men. 

\^^  "  Poets  in  the  Middle  Ages  had  sung  of  woman  as  an  angel^ 
ecclesiastical  asceticism  had  treated  her  as  little  better  than 
a  demon,  but  the  men  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  of  a 
different  mould.  They  had  something  of  the  modern  spirit ^ 
and  looked  upon  woman  as  a  being  to  share  the  common  bur- 

/  dens  and  pleasures  of  life,  not  to  be  worshiped  or  shunned. "  ^ 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  gives  an  excellent  expression  of  this 
attitude.  In  his  Instructions  to  his  Son,  he  writes  in  regard 
to  the  choice  of  a  wife: 

"Have  therefore  ever  more  care,  that  thou  be  beloved  of  thy 
Wife,  rather  than  thy  self  besotted  on  her;  and  thou  shalt  judge  of 
her  love  by  these  two  observations:  first  If  thou  perceive  she  have 
a  care  of  thy  estate,  and  exercise  her  self  therein;  the  other,  If 
\  she  study  to  please  thee,  and  be  sweet  unto  the  in  conversation, 
I  without  thy  instruction,  for  Love  needs  no  teaching.  .  {*  .  Let 
her  have  equal  part  of  thy  Estate  whilest  thou  livest,  if  thou  find 
her  sparing  and  honest." ' 

Nevertheless  the  Elizabethan  ideal  of  woman,  whether  justly 
so  or  not,  was  considerably  lower  than  that  of  today,  espe- 
cially than  that  of  America.  The  model  wife  was  a  woman  of 
moderate  attainments  only,  and  St.  Paul's  dictum,  "I  suffer 
'  not  the  woman  ...  to  usurp  the  authority  over  the  man, " 
expressed  in  one  way  or  another,  was  a  knell  that  was  con- 
stantly rung  in  her  ears.     Perhaps  Eve,  in  the  latter  part 

'  Heywood,  Most  Worthy  Women,  f .  **  b. 

*  Hill,  Women  in  English  Life,  I,  117. 

•  Raleigh,  Remains  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  p.  85. 


CONTEMPORARY  ATTITUDES  TOWARDS  WOMAN  177 

of  Paradise  Lost,  where  she  appears  as  a  real  helpmate 
to  her  husband,  presents  the  best  contemporary  picture  of 
what  it  was  thought,  from  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  to 
the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  wife  should  be.^ 
A  similar  portrayal  is  found  in  Overbury's  A  Wife,  which 
judging  from  its  immense  popularity,^  seems  to  have  had 
wide  approval. 

"Give  me  next  Good,  an  understanding  Wife   ' 
By  nature  wise,  not  learned  by  much  Art. 
Some  knowledge  on  her  side  will  all  my  Life 
More  scope  of  Conversation  impart. 


A  passive  understanding  to  conceive, 

A  judgment  to  discern,  I  wish  to  finde. 

Beyond  that,  all  as  hazardous  I  leave: 

Learning  and  pregnant  wit  in  Woman-kinde, 

What  it  finds  malleable  maketh  frail. 

And  doth  not  add  more  ballast,  but  more  sail." » 

Thomas  Heywood  upholds  this  pouit  of  view  in  his  instruc- 
tions to  prospective  husbands: 

"Yet  were  it  best  a  modest  medium  keepe, 
Chuse  neither  compleate  Shrow,  nor  perfect  Sheepe, 
I  would  have  my  wife  neither  tongue-tide  quite 
Nor  yet  all  tonnge;  so  much  as  could  accite 
To  affability  and  amorous  prate 
So  much  I'd  haue  her  vse,  and  more  I  hate. 


1  A  good  deal  of  nonsense  has  been  written  about  Milton's  supposed 
"low  ideal  of  woman."    It  must  be  clear  by  this  time  that,  although      v^ 
his  ideal  was  lower  than  that  of  today,  it  was  considerably  higher  than 
the  average  of  his  time. 

*  At  least  five  editions  of  the  poem  occurred  the  year  of  its  publi- 
cation (1614)  and  ten  more  by  1632. 

»  Overbury,  op.  cit,  11,  175  ff. 


178  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

She  of  the  two  extreames,  if  you  demand 
With  which  I  would  be  troubled,  vnderstand, 
I'd  take  the  gentle  beast,  the  harmelesse  Sheepe, 
Whose  calmenes  would  not  fright  me  from  my  sleepe."  ^ 

The  author  of  A  Discovrse  of  the  Married  and  Single  Life 
says  on  the  point  raised  by  Heywood,  that  some  men  '*haue 
made  it  a  great  question,  whether  it  were  better  for  a  man  to 
marrie  a  shrew,  or  a  sheepe,  but  hardly  can  it  be  resolued/'  * 
Again,  Niccholes,  writing  on  the  choice  of  a  wife,  says  that 
she  should  be  ''  of  sober  and  mild  aspect,  courteous  behauiour, 
decent  carriage,  of  a  fixed  eye,  constant  looke  and  vnaffected 
gate."^  Such  expressions  may  be  found  in  almost  all  the 
domestic  books.  L.  Wright  puts  it,  ^' A  woman  that  is  silent, 
jof  tongue:  shamfast  of  countinance:  vertuous  qualities 
correspondent:  is  like  a  goodly  pleasant  flower  .  .  .  which 
shall  be  giuen  for  a  good  portion  to  such  a  one  as  feareth 
God. "  *  John  Donne  says  in  one  of  his  sermons  that  it  would 
be  a  sin  for  one  to  love  a  wife  as  he  does  his  mistress;  and 
although  he  is  evidently  referring  to  the  quality  rather  than 
the  quantity  of  love,  the  statement  is  nevertheless  evidence 
of  the  prevailing  idea  that  a  mistress  was  to  be  passionately 
idealized,  whereas  a  wife  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  natural  and 
—A  somewhat  uninteresting,  though  none  the  less  valuable, 
adjunct  to  every-day  life.  The  poetry  of  the  period  raises 
the  former  to  the  gods;  the  prose  instructs  the  latter  how 
to  walk  upon  earth. 

^  Heywood,  History  concerninge  Women,  p.  236. 

«  Op.  ciL,  f.  A6. 

»  Niccholes,  Marriage  and  Wiving,  p.  9. 

*  Wright,  Display  of  dutie,  p.  22. 


CHAPTER  VI 

WIDER  RANGES  OF  DOMESTIC  LITERATURE 

I.  More  General  Conduct  Books 

It  is  possible  in  a  brief  discussion  only  to  indicate  the 
many  types  of  writing  with  which  the  books  we  have  been 
studying  heretofore  are  more  or  less  intimately  connected, 
and  to  suggest  tentatively  certain  relations  that  seem  to 
exist  among  them.  As  has  been  said  already,  the  domestic 
book  is  not  as  a  rule  literary  in  character;  nevertheless, 
certain  tendencies  toward  conscious  artistry  often  exist, 
and,  as  has  been  shown,  examples  of  real  literary  merit  are 
not  altogether  lacking.  If  we  go  further  afield,  to  the  con- 
duct books  of  kindred  nature,  we  find  many  that  are  dis- 
tinctly literary;  and  in  the  recognized  literature  of  the  period, 
we  may  discover  the  influence  of  the  increasing  interest  in 
domestic  affairs  and  possibly  that  of  the  family  book  itself. 

The  culmination  of  interest  in  domestic  life  took  place  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century,  at  which  time  we 
may  group  around  the  household  book  such  aUied  types  as 
the  book  of  manners,  the  book  of  moral  reflection  and 
allegory,  the  book  of  direction  and  advice  to  young  people, 
and  books  following  the  models  set  by  Machiavelli's  II 
Principe,  Castiglione's  II  Cortegiano,  and  Nenna's  II  Nennio, 
Besides  these,  there  were  others  on  more  specific  subjects 
connected  with  domesticity  and  the  conduct  of  life,  such  as 
cookery,  household  medicine,  the  education  of  children,  the 
government  of  estates,  gentlemen's  callings  (especially  the 
practice  of  arms),  recreations,  the  religious  life  of  the  family, 

179 


'J  I 


180  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

the  various  phases  and  occupations  of  society,  the  pleasures 
of  city  and  country  life,  and  so  forth.  The  last  part  of  Eliza- 
beth's reign  has  been  described  as  a  period  when  the  English 
nation  paused  to  take  stock  of  itself.  The  literature  of  the 
time  certainly  exhibits  a  national  awakening,  and  the  more 
utilitarian  writing  shows  equally  the  development  of  an 
individual  self-consciousness.  This  attitude  had  been  steadily 
growing  in  England  with  the  increase  of  the  practice  of  in- 
quiry and  thought  in  place  of  the  acceptance  of  dogma :  the 
Reformation  was  an  important  stimulus  in  this  direction; 
the  Renaissance  brought  the  movement  to  flower.  We  can- 
not here  go  into  the  origin  and  development  of  even  the  more 
important  types  of  books  before  us,  but  must  content  our- 
selves with  a  glance  at  the  results  therefrom. 

Of  the  books  which  I  have  mentioned  as  culminating  to 
some  extent  about  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
those  on  particular  topics  are  too  specialized,  and  those  of 
the  moral  meditation  and  moral  allegory  types  are  too  general 
and  form  too  large  a  field,  for  our  consideration.  Of  the 
others,  the  book  of  maimers,  the  book  of  the  courtier,  and 
the  book  of  princely  conduct,  are  pretty  well  known.  But 
there  is  another  type  of  some  importance,  which,  although 
akin  to  the  three  types  just  mentioned,  seems  to  have 
escaped  observation.  This  we  may  call,  for  convenience' 
sake,  the  book  of  honor  or  nobility.  A  typical  volume  of 
this  class,  while  reflecting  the  ideas  of  the  Cortegiano,  is 
really  nearer  in  nature  to  the  book  of  moral  philosophy, 
since  it  is  concerned  with  the  virtues  which  go  to  make  up  a 
gentleman,  such  as  justice,  temperance,  friendship,  education, 
etc.,  rather  than  with  his  qualifications  as  an  ornament  of  the 
court.  The  usual  conception  of  the  gentleman  of  this  time 
has  been  expressed  thus:  ''The  knight  had  been  transformed 
into  the  courtier;  and  the  Virtuous  and  gentle  discipline,' 
deemed  requisite  for  him  in  his  new  sphere,  was,  for  the  most 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  181 

part,  to  be  found  in  such  regulations  for  external  behaviour 
as  are  laid  down  in  Castiglione's  //  Cortegiano."  ^  Such  a 
statement  obviously  presents  but  half  the  case,  for  beside 
the  transformation  of  the  knight  into  the  courtier,  we  find 
in  the  book  of  honor  a  presentation  of  him  as  the  English  \ 
gentleman,  clad  with  ''the  armour  of  a  Christian  man  speci-  ■ 
fied  by  St.  Paul,  vi  Ephes.,"  as  Spenser  expressed  it.^  An 
example  of  such  a  book,  written  before  the  Cortegiano,  is 
Barclay's  Mirrour  of  Good  Manners,  translated  from  the 
Latin  of  Dominicus  Mancinus  in  1523,  which  consists 
chiefly  of  discussions  in  verse  of  prudence,  virtue,  magna- 
nimity, and  temperance.  The  books  nearest  to  this  type  in 
Italian  literature  are  Nenna's  II  Nennio,  Muzio's  II  GentiU 
uomOf  and  Giraldi's  Dialoghi  delta  Vita  Civile;  but  the  first 
two  of  these  are  concerned  only  with  the  question  of  what 
should  constitute  a  nobleman,  —  whether  birth,  riches,  or 
virtues  of  the  mind  —  and  the  third  is  simply  a  reworking 
of  the  ethical  philosophy  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  The 
Spanish  writer  Jeronomo  Osorio,  in  his  Discourse  of  Civill  . 

and  Christian  Nohilitie,  as  translated  by  William  Blandy  in         W 
1576,  comes  nearer  the  type  we  are  following,  and  treats  |  VlX 
briefly  justice,  courage,  liberality,  magnanimity,  eloquence,-^'  ^ 

and  knowledge  of  men  as  virtues  requisite  for  a  nobleman.        \  j 
and  justice,  liberality,  friendship,  fortitude,  and  magnanimity  )  {J^ 
as  those  of  a  Christian  gentleman.    The  Academie  Frangoise./ 
by  la  Primaudaye,  which  was  put  into  English  in  1586  by 
T.  B.,  combines  the  nobility  type  with  some  of  the  others 
noted,  and  includes  discussions  of  such  topics  as  virtue,  vice, 
duty,  prudence,  friendship,  education,  temperance,  fortitude, 

1  Camh,  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  Ill,  266. 

'  Spenser,  Letter  to  Raleigh,  prefatory  to  Faerie  Queene.  Graund 
Amour  in  Hawes'  Passetyme  of  Pleasure,  Youth  in  his  Example  of  Virtuey 
and  Spenser's  own  Red  Cross  Knight  are  all  described  as  wearing  the 
same  Christian  armor,  and  St.  Paul's  Epistle  is  expressly  referred  to 
in  each  case. 


182  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

justice,  etc.  The  continued  popularity  of  this  book  in  Eng- 
land is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  translation  ran  into  six 
editions  by  1618. 

In  England  itself,  we  find  a  clear  sequence  of  nobility 
books  from  Middle  English  times  down.  The  best  early 
example  is,  of  course,  Hoccleve^s  Gouvernail  of  Princes,  which 
is  almost  entirely  given  up  to  the  discussion  of  moral  virtues, 
but  the  roots  of  the  type  go  further  back  to  such  works  as 
Piers  the  Plowman  or  even  to  the  still  earlier  exemplum 
and  virtue  stories.  We  cannot  say  that  this  series  was 
unaffected  by  foreign  literature  and  foreign  ideas,  any  more 
than  we  can  say  the  like  of  any  other  literary  development, 
but  we  may  claim  perhaps  that  the  main  stream  was  native. 

In  the  last  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  however,  the 
Italian  influence  was  so  strong  that  the  nobility  book  became 
combined  with  others,  in  a  type  which,  gradually  clearing 
itself  of  irrelevant  matter,  culminated  in  the  book  of  ''the 
complete  gentleman."^  Previous  to  this  time,  Elyot  had 
entered  the  field  with  his  Gouvernour,  in  1531,  in  which  some 
of  the  Italian  ideas  are  combined  with  treatments  of  many  of 
the  moral  virtues.  A  better  example,  however,  of  the  com- 
bination of  types  is  Humphrey's  The  Nobles,  written  first  in 
Latin  in  1560  and  translated  into  English  in  1563.  Here,  in 
addition  to  a  great  deal  of  general  moral  discourse,  we  have 
the  usual  Italian  classification  of  nobility,  on  the  grounds  of 

*  The  Italian  books,  especially  those  of  the  Principe  and  Cortegiano 
types,  and  the  ideas  contained  therein,  are  fully  discussed  in  Einstein, 
The  Italian  Renaissance  in  England.  The  more  prominent  English 
imitations,  Elyot's  Gouvernour,  Humphrey's  The  Nobles,  the  anonymous 
Institutions  of  a  Gentleman,  and  some  others,  are  also  noted.  But  the 
later  books  combining  various  types  are  entirely  overlooked,  as  are  also 
The  Covrt  of  ciuill  Courtesie  by  S.  Robson  in  1591,  Ars  Avlica,  trans- 
lated from  the  Italian  of  Lorenzo  Ducci  by  Ed.  Blount  in  1607,  and 
The  Honest  Man,  translated  from  the  French  of  N.  Faret  by  Ed.  Grim- 
stone  in  1632,  which  are  all  typical  books  of  the  Cortegiano  class. 


WIDER   RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  183 

birth,  wealth,  and  attainment,  as  in  the  Nennio;  we  have  also 
a  similarity  to  the  Cortegiano,  in  the  instructions  given  to  the 
courtier;    and  finally,  in  the  field  of  gentlemanliness,  we 
have  brief  treatises  of  liberality,  justice,  temperance,  conti- 
nence, magnificence,  apparel,  the  house,  sports,  the  educa- 
tion of  children,  etc.,  perhaps  modeled    on   the   Discourse 
of  Osorio,  who  is  mentioned  by  name.     A  similar  treatise 
is  John  Larke's  Flower  of  Vertuej  translated  from  the  Italian 
of  Fiore  in  1565.    A  work  which  has  little  or  nothing  of  the 
courtier  but  which  represents  a  combination  of  the  morality' 
and  nobility  books,  is  Thomas  Rogers'  Anatomie  of  the  mindej    \ 
in  1576,  one  of  the  many  "anatomies''  of  the  time,  some  of 
which  are  distinct  forerunners  of  Burton's  famous  Anatomy  of 
Melancholy.     Rogers'  book  is  divided  into  two  parts,  the  first 
on  "Perturbations  in  Generall,"  which  he  defines  according    \ 
to  Zeno's  opinion  as  "conditions  of  the  mind  contrary  to    \ 
reason,"  for  example,  pleasure,  ambition,  lust,  anger,  love, 
fear,  sorrow;  and  the  second,  "  Of  Morall  Vertues, "  which  is  a 
typical   nobility   book,  discussing  first  wherein  felicity  or 
nobility  exists,  —  whether  in  mind,  body,  or  estate  —  and    \ 
secondly,  the  qualities  or  virtues  of  the  mind,  including  those  J 
of  Aristotle  in  addition  to  many  others.    The  last  named  divi-^ 
sion  of  the  work  runs  to  some  250  pages  and  is  the  fullest 
treatment  thereof  that  I  have  found.    The  Blazon  of  Gentrie 
by  John  Feme,  in  1586,  illustrates  a  type  of  book  which  only 
just  touches  upon  that  we  are  following.    It  is,  in  the  main, 
a  treatment  of  the  bearing  of  arms,  the  laws  of  combat,  and 
kindred  topics,  together  with  a  second  part  showing  the  an- 
cestries of  certain  families  and  various  interests  connected 
with  them.    The  first  contains  a  discussion  of  nobility  from 
a  civil  point  of  view,  the  professions  of  gentlemen,  and  some 
allied  subjects.    The  whole  treatment  is  presented  in  a  dia- 
logue between  a  herald,  a  knight,  a  divine,  a  lawyer,  an 
antiquary,  and  a  plowman,  but  this  device  to  disguise  exposi- 


184  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

tory  writing  was  so  common  in  English  literature  from  earliest 
times  down  that  we  are  unable  to  argue  anything  from  the 
fact  that  it  is  here  used. 

So  far,  we  have  noted  no  discussion  of  marriage  in  these 
books  of  combined  interests.  The  earliest  example  I  have 
found  which  does  include  this  subject  is  The  French  Academie 
of  la  Primaudaye.  This  work  contains  seven  successive 
chapters  on  marriage  and  domestic  affairs,  which  by  them- 
selves would  make  a  typical  family  book.  But  in  1589,  there 
appeared  a  book  of  native  origin  combining  several  of  the 
types  of  the  time  and  containing  a  treatment  of  marriage. 
This  is  L.  Wright's  A  Display  ofdutie,  "diet  with  sage  sayings, 
pythie  sentences,  and  proper  similies. "  It  consists  of  short, 
somewhat  unrelated  chapters,  among  which  are  discussions 
of  idleness,  fortitude,  chastity,  the  duties  of  a  subject  to  a 
prince,  friendship,  marriage,  art,  etc.  The  Display ^  however, 
is  too  slight  to  be  of  importance,  except  as  the  first  native 
example  of  the  type.  In  1597,  there  appeared  a  book  of 
similar  nature  by  John  Bodenham,  the  compiler  of  England's 
Helicon^  entitled  Politeuphuia;  Wits  Commonwealth,  which 
was  popular  enough,  for  undiscoverable  reasons,  to  run  into 
ten  editions  by  1605  and  ten  more  before  the  new  century 
was  out.^  This  rather  small  volume  combines  the  interests 
of  the  morality,  nobility,  and  domestic  books,  and,  as  the 
title  indicates,  treats  of  almost  everything  under  the  sun, 
the  first  chapter  being  on  God  and  the  last  on  hell.  Each 
topic  is  presented  very  briefly  by  means  of  a  general  state- 
ment in  italics,  as  a  proposition  for  demonstration,  followed 

1  The  similar  book  Wits  theatre  of  the  little  World,  is  included  here. 
The  compiling  of  these  two  books  seems  to  have  been  done  by  Ling 
and  Allott  respectively,  over  whom  Bodenham  held  some  kind  of 
editorship.  (See  D.  N.  B.)  Both  books  are  practically  the  same  in 
content. 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  185 

by  quotations  from  the  classics  and  references  to  the  usual 
well-worn  historical  and  mythical  events.  The  book  is 
absolutely  without  arrangement,  and  on  the  whole  amounts 
to  little  more  than  a  multitude  of  quotations  and  anecdotes 
gathered  under  different  headings.  A  far  superior,  although 
less  popular,  work  was  William  Vaughan's  The  Golden  Grove, 
published  in  1599,  with  a  second  edition  in  1608.  The 
author's  prefatory  description  of  this  book  gives  a  good 
summary  of  the  three  treatises  which  compose  it:  "If  any 
man  delight  to  haue  himselfe  shine  with  a  glorious  shew  of 
vertue,  I  haue  giuen  him  the  toppes  or  moral  behauior;  if  to 
haue  his  house  and  family  wel  beautified,  I  haue  yeelded  him 
diuers  braunches  for  that  purpose;  if  to  haue  his  country 
flourish,  I  haue  sent  him  deep-grounded  stemme  of  policy." 
To  speak  more  plainly,  the  three  parts  consist  of  a  typical 
treatise  of  nobility,  which  discusses  justice,  truth,  mag- 
nanimity, temperance,  magnificence,  courtesy,  friendship, 
patience,  etc.,  a  typical  domestic  book,  and  a  book  of  poli- 
tics, —  perhaps  a  distant  follower  of  Machiavelli's  —  treat- 
ing of  such  things  as  the  duties  of  subjects,  the  functions  of 
governmental  bodies,  the  value  of  education,  and  other 
interests  of  a  commonwealth.  Each  treatise  is  divided  up 
into  short  chapters,  186  in  all,  so  that  in  appearance  the  book 
is  much  like  its  predecessors,  but  in  reality  the  topics  are 
better  chosen  and  better  arranged. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find  the  above  types 
continuing.  Segar's  Honor  Military  and  Ciuill,  in  1602,  and 
Peacham's  Compleat  Gentleman,  in  1622,  only  border  on 
our  field,  the  former  being  concerned  chiefly  with  arms,  com- 
bats, tournaments,  orders  of  chivalry,  etc.,  and  the  latter, 
after  a  discussion  of  the  education  of  youth,  with  the  various 
diversions  and  pleasures  of  a  man's  life.  Similarly,  Francis 
Markham's  Booke  of  Honour,  in  1625,  is  also  off  the  track,  as 
it  deals  with  the  different  orders  of  nobility  and  the  honor  to 


186  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

which  they  are  entitled  rather  than  with  the  character  of  a 
noble  or  a  gentleman.  Barckley's  A  Discovrse  of  the  Felidtie  of 
Man,  newly  corrected  and  augmented  in  1603,  is  a  book  more 
of  moral  philosophy  than  of  conduct.  It  is  an  extensive 
treatise  of  some  600  pages,  in  which  it  is  dejnonstrated  that 
the  true  felicity  of  mankind  lies  not  in  pleasure,  riches, 
glory,  or  virtue,  but  in  the  "grace  of  God,"  and  that  man's 
*'summum  bonum^'  is  'Ho  worship  and  glorify  God  in  this 
life  that  wee  may  be  ioyned  with  him  in  the  life  to  come." 
The  book  is  not  so  stuffily  religious  as  this  outline  would 
indicate,  and  a  great  deal  of  attention  is  given  to  classical 
philosophy.  Bryskett's  A  Discovrse  of  Civill  Life,  in  1606, 
which  is  a  pretty  slavish  translation  of  Giraldi's  Dialoghi 
delta  Vita  Civile,  is  not  greatly  different  in  kind  from  Barck- 
ley's  book,  but  the  argument  depends  more  on  the  Greek 
and  Latin  philosophers  than  on  the  teachings  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  subjects  discussed  also  deal  much  more  with 
actual  life  and  less  with  abstractions,  so  that  whereas  the 
Felidtie  of  Man  seems  properly  to  be  classed  as  a  book  of 
morality,  the  Civill  Life  is  distinctly  one  of  gentlemanly 
conduct.  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  is  too  well  known 
to  require  more  than  a  word,  despite  its  importance  in 
literary  history.  The  title  suggests  a  very  narrow  field  of 
interest,  but  the  author  finds  place  within  the  book  for 
discussions  of  many  phases  of  the  life  of  man. 

But  by  far  the  best  example  of  the  culmination  of  the  type 
is  Richard  Brathwait's  The  English  Gentleman,  published  in 
1630,  with  later  editions  in  1633,  1641,  and  1652.  This  is  a 
large  book  of  456  pages,  divided  into  eight  treatises  entitled 
youth,  disposition,  education,  vocation  (including  domestic 
life),  recreation,  acquaintances,  moderation,  and  perfection. 
A  glance  at  the  index,  in  which  over  200  separate  items 
are  mentioned,  gives  some  idea  of  the  completeness  of  the 
work.    Each  topic  is  thoroughly  treated;   the  argument  is 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  187 

based  first  on  common  sense  and  secondly  on  classical  and 
scriptural  authority;  and  the  style  of  writing,  though  show- 
ing little  conscious  attempt  at  artistry,  is  clear,  strong,  and 
often  spirited.  The  book  concludes  with  a  brief  character- 
ization of  the  English  gentleman,  summarizing  in  a  few 
words  each  of  the  eight  main  divisions,  which  is  worthy  to 
be  put  beside  the  better  known  one  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 
The  companion  piece  to  the  English  Gentleman,  entitled 
The  English' Gentlewoman,  published  in  1631,  does  for  woman 
what  Gentleman  work  does  for  man.^  In  1633,  the  two  were 
published  in  the  same  volume,  and  in  this  form  make  one  of 
the  most  interesting  books,  from  an  extra-literary  stand- 
point, of  the  century,  and  one  which  certainly  deserves  more 
attention  than  it  has  received. 

Three  other  books  may  be  dismissed  with  a  word  each. 
Rous'  The  Art  of  Happiness,  1619,  republished  in  1631,  is  a 
combination  of  the  conduct  and  moral  philosophy  types. 
Stafford's  Gvide  to  Honovr,  1634,  is  a  small  volume  of  practical 
advice  in  regard  to  man's  various  activities.  R.  C.'s  The 
Happy  Mind,  1640,  is  similar  to  the  Art  of  Happiness,  but 
contains  in  addition  a  treatment  of  the  four  "complexions," 
which  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  Anatomy  of  Melan^ 
choly. 

All  of  these  books,  dealing  with  life  and  human  nature  in 
their  different  aspects,  like  the  typical  domestic  book,  are 
utilitarian  rather  than  literary;  but  the  development  of 
which  they  are  a  part  and  the  ideas  they  express,  without 
doubt  had  a  distinct  influence  upon  the  purely  literary  work 
of  the  time.  That  which  comes  nearest  them  in  kind  is  the 
moral  allegory,  and  their  influence  here  is  greater  than  has 
heretofore  been  demonstrated.  Take  the  Faerie  Queene  for 
example,  of  which  it  is  usually  said  that  Spenser  took  the 
twelve  virtues,  on  which  the  poem  was  to  be  built  from  the 

1  See  above,  pp.  162-163. 


188  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

neo-Platonists  of  Italy.^  It  is  indisputable  that  Spenser's 
debt  to  the  thought  and  literature  of  Italy  was  large.  Beside 
the  better  known  writings  of  that  country,  he  may  have 
known  Piccolomini's  Institutione  Morale;  he  seems  to  have 
been  a  friend  of  Bryskett,  the  translator  of  Giraldi's  Vita 
Civile,'^  and  perhaps  knew  this  work  in  the  original;  and  he 
certainly  was  familiar  with  Nenna's  II  Nennio,  since  he 
wrote  a  commendatory  sonnet  (though  a  very  bad  one)  to 
Jones'  translation  of  it.  Considering  his  interest  in  this 
kind  of  writing,  which  his  valuable  letter  to  Raleigh  fully 
testifies,  it  is  only  natural  to  suppose  that  he  read  the  Eng- 
lish as  well  as  the  Italian  works.  It  is  certainly  pushing  the 
Italian  influence  too  far  to  make  it  entirelj^  responsible  for  the 
writing  of  the  Faerie  QueenCj  since  discussion  of  the  ideas 
embodied  in  the  poem  was  widespread  in  England,  both  in 
and  out  of  print.  An  interesting  feature  which  connects 
Spenser's  moral  philosophy  with  English  rather  than  Italian 
thought  and  with  one  of  the  new  ideas  which  I  have  tried 
to  emphasize  in  this  study,  is  his  treatment  of  the  virtue  of 
^  chastity.  This  he  casts  to  be  played  by  a  woman,  which  is  in 
exact  keeping  with  the  teaching  of  the  domestic  books,  in 
which  the  word  is  used  in  connection  with  woman  only  and 
in  which  the  virtue  is  regarded  as  especially  a  feminine  one. 

1  Jusserand,  Mod.  Phil.,  Ill,  373  flF.,  has  shown  that  Spenser  spoke 
carelessly  in  saying  that  he  took  his  twelve  virtues  from  Aristotle,  and 
that  they  came  rather  from  Renaissance  interpretation  of  the  classics. 
He  pitches  upon  Piccolomini  and  Giraldi  as  the  chief  sources,  but  his 
evidence  here  is  far  from  convincing,  especially  as  the  conversation 
reported  by  Bryskett  in  regard  to  Giraldi's  book  has  been  shown  to 
be  fictitious. 

»  Erskine,  P.M.L.A.,  XXX,  837  ff.,  has  overthrown  the  belief  that 
the  famous  conversation  between  Spenser  and  Bryskett  actually  took 
place;  however,  he  believes  that  the  two  were  friends,  as  seems  more 
than  likely,  and  that  Spenser  took  his  conception  of  friendship  as  a 
virtue  from  Giraldi's  original  Italian. 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC  LITERATURE  189 

Furthermore,  Spenser's  conception  of  chastity  as  a  character- 
istic of  the  wife  and  mother,  rather  than  of  the  virgin  only, 
is  in  keeping  with  the  new  thought  of  the  German  and  English 
Reformation  and  contrary  to  that  of  Catholicism,  which  held 
sway  in  Italy.^  It  is  evident  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Faerie 
Queene  came,  for  the  most  part,  from  the  classics;  but  these 
doctrines  were  influenced  and  added  to  not  only  by  Christian 
philosophy  but  by  the  new  religious  and  moral  ideas  of  the 
sixteenth  century .^  These  two  elements  in  Spenser's  allegor- 
ical treatment  of  the  English  gentleman  have  been  neglected 
by  students  of  his  work,  probably  because  they  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  English  books  discussed  above  and  of  the 
extent  of  English  thought  on  the  subject. 

Of  the  less  known  moral  allegories,  space  allows  for  men- 
tion of  only  three,  which  from  their  obvious  connection  with 
the  books  we  have  been  studying,  seem  to  stand  out  as  par- 
ticularly important. 

An  interesting  book  of  purely  moral  conduct  type  was 
published  in  1584  by  W.  Averell.^  It  contains  three  treatises, 
entitled  A  dyall  for  dainty  darlings,  rockt  in  the  cradle  of 
securitie,  A  glasse  for  all  disobedient  sounes  to  look  in,  and  A 
myrrour  for  vertuous  maydes.  The  main  feature  of  each 
treatise  is  an  exemplum  tale  of  some  length,  inculcating  the 
desired  lesson.  The  style  is  typically  Euphuistic,  although 
lacking  Lyly's  lightness  of  touch.  The  opening  of  the  first 
tale  is  as  follows: 

^  Bacon,  in  his  essay  Married  and  Single  Life,  also  speaks  of  chastity 
as  a  characteristic  of  the  married  woman.  Contrast  Spenser's  and 
Bacon's  conception  of  chastity  with  the  earlier  Enghsh  usage  of  the 
term  by  Chaucer  in  the  Prologue  to  the  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  where  it 
is  consistently  used  as  a  synomym  of  virginity  and  an  antonym  to  the 
marriage  state.  See  also  Donne's  remark  on  the  subject,  p.  122, 
n.  1,  above. 

*  Spenser  himself  refers  to  St.  Paul's  teachings.    See  above,  p.  181. 

•  The  book  goes  under  the  combined  titles  of  the  three  treatises. 


190  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

"  There  was  within  the  famous  Cittie  of  Constantinople,  a  Cap- 
taine  ouer  a  certayne  bande  of  Venetians,  who,  if  he  could  as  well, 
by  wisdome  haue  gouerned  his  wiues  infirmitie,  as  he  could  by 
poUicie  conduct  and  rule  his  armie,  his  memorie  had  beene  obscured 
with  blotte  of  obHuion,  and  his  wiues  example  drowned  in  the  suddes 
of  silence."  * 

A  still  more  interesting  volume  is  Willohie  his  Avisa,  in 
1594,  which  ran  into  four  more  editions  by  1610.  According 
to  the  '' Epistle  to  the  Reader,"  it  was  put  out  by  Hadrian 
Dobell,  who  says  that  he  found  it  among  Willoby's  papers.^ 
It  is  this  book  which  contains,  in  one  of  the  commendatory 
verses,  the  first  definite  printed  reference  to  Shakespeare,  and 
also,  in  the  poem  itself,  a  character  called  W.  S.,  whom  some 
fond  critics  have  taken  for  the  bard  of  Avon  himself,  Avisa 
being  the  "dark  lady. "  ^  The  epistle  has  other  references  to 
contemporary  literature  in  the  sentence,  "Although  hee  flye 
not  alofte  with  the  wings  of  Astrophell,  nor  dare  to  compare 
with  the  Arcadian  shepherd,  or  any  way  match  with  the 
daintie  Fayry  Queene  ..."  The  poem  itself,  which  runs 
to  74  cantos  and  128  pages,  represents  the  "true  picture  of  a 
modest  maid  and  of  a  chast  and  constant  wife"  under  the 
attempts  of  various  suitors  to  make  love  to  her.  But  she 
remains  true  to  her  name,  the  letters  of  which  stand  for 
^'Amans  vxor  inuolata  semper  amanda.'' 

'       "So  thus  she  stands  vnconquered  yet, 
As  Lambe  amidst  the  Lions  pause. 
Whom  gifts,  nor  wils,  nor  force  of  wit, 

^  Averell,  op.  cii.,  f.  Bi6. 

2  The  whole  account  of  this  publication  is  probably  fictitious. 

'  See  Grosart,  Introd.  to  his  reprint  of  the  Avisa;  also  Fleay,  lAje 
Shakes.,  p.  121  ff.,  and  Biog.  Chron.,  II,  221  ff.  This  theory  seems  to 
me,  like  that  built  up  on  Milton's  divorce  tracts,  a  case  of  first  putting 
the  plum  in  the  pie. 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  191 

Could  vanquish  once  with  all  their  shewes, 
To  speake  the  truth,  and  say  no  more, 
I  neuer  knew  her  hke  before."  ^ 

Spenser's  imitators  are  well  known  and  may  be  omitted 
here.  But  I  must  mention  one  small  book  of  this  class  which 
seems  to  have  been  overlooked  heretofore.  This  is  The 
Labyrinth  of  Mans  Life  by  John  Norden  in  1614.  It  is  an 
allegory  of  the  Spenserian  type,  but  differs  from  the  latter  in 
that  it  is  made  up  chiefly  of  moralizing  on  the  part  of  the 
author  and  the  characters  and  contains  little  action.  One 
stanza  of  the  author's  prefatory  verses  is  worth  quoting  for 
its  references  to  contemporary  writers. 

"Chawcer,  Gowre,  the  bishop  of  dunkell. 
In  ages  farre  remote  were  eloquent: 
Now  Sidney,  Spencer,  others  moe  excell, 
And  are  in  latter  times  more  excellent 
To  antique  Lauriats  paralell."  * 

The  book  itself  is  in  heroic  couplets,  an  early  example  of 
their  use.  The  verses  given  as  the  argument  of  the  poem 
summarize  both  its  story  and  its  moral  teaching. 

''The  Man  that  in  the  Cell  of  Silence  sits, 
Imports  content,  in  his  distastfuU  fits, 
The  Labyrinth,  the  worlds  inconstancie. 
The  passionate  Desert  doth  signifie. 

True  vertue  doth  the  Lady  represent. 
The  hag  foule  Enuy,  alwaies  malecontent: 
Who  what  the  Ladie,  frames  and  rectifies, 
She  in  despite,  inchants,  and  vilifies. 

Wherein  the  Authors  purpose  is  to  show, 
Enuies  assault,  And  Vertues  counterblow: 
How  Enuie  showes  her  most  obsequious. 
When  she  would  circumuent  the  Vertuous."  ^ 

1  Willoby,  op.  cit.,  i.  62  6. 

'  Norden,  op.  cit.,  f.  A3  6. 

»  Zfeid.,  f.  Bi6. 


192  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

II.  Domestic  Drama  ^ 

As  has  already  been  noted,  the  drama  was  early  used  for 
satire  against  women  and  the  marriage  state  in  general.  In 
the  Towneley  Mysteries,  for  instance,  the  merry  devil  Tuti- 
villus  is  given  the  special  office  of  denouncing  women  who 
talk  in  church;  in  the  same  cycle,  the  quarreling  of  Noah 
and  his  wife,  due  to  the  latter's  shrewishness,  forms  an 
episode  of  some  importance;  and  Joseph,  previous  to  the 
flight  of  the  holy  family  into  Egypt,  soUloquizes  on  the 
troubles  of  married  life  and  warns  the  young  people  of 
the  audience  against  entering  into  it.  Among  the  moralities, 
the  problem  of  the  proper  upbringing  of  children  was  occa- 
sionally touched  on,  as  in  Nice  Wanton;  and  in  a  few  cases, 
the  state  of  matrimony  itself  was  dealt  with  in  plays  pre- 
senting the  evils  of  forced  and  ill-assorted  unions  and  of 
marriages  made  by  children  against  the  will  of  their  parents, 
as  in  Juventus  Pater  Uxor  and  The  Disobedient  Child.  But 
the  excursions  of  the  morality  into  the  field  of  home  life  for 
the  purpose  of  instruction  as  to  family  relations,  did  not 
give  rise  to  any  series  of  moral  domestic  plays  in  later  drama; 
for  although  there  is  evidence  that  some  feeling  existed  even 
into  James'  reign  that  the  stage  should  be  used  as  a  didactic 
medium  and  "so  obtain  the  very  end  of  poesy, "  —  as  Sidney 
put  it  —  it  is  not  possible  to  find  more  than  a  handful  of 
plays  in  all  fields  combined  that  have  any  well-defined  moral 
issue  as  their  basis. 

Despite  this  lack  of  moral  intent,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  some  of  the  plays  put  on  were  designed  to  present  a 

1  By  domestic  drama  I  mean  that  dealing  with  family  life.  The  occa- 
sional use  of  the  term  to  refer  to  native  plays  or  influences  or  to  plays 
of  middle-class  life,  is  here  disregarded  altogether.  For  fuller  informa- 
tion on  plays  mentioned,  see  Schelling,  Elizabethan  Drama,  1668-1642. 
A  list  of  EUzabethan  plays,  telUng  where  each  is  published,  may  be 
found  ibid.,  II,  538. 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  193 

domestic  situation  or  problem  for  the  consideration  of  the 
public;  such  plays  as  Arden  of  Faversham  and  A  Warning  for 
Fair  Women  were  even  taken  from  actual  life  and  dramatized 
as  horrible  examples  of  evil  households.  But  among  the  many"^ 
plays  dealing  with  domestic  relations  of  one  kind  or  another, 
we  are  forced  to  admit  that  comparatively  few  were  actually    r 
aimed  to  present  or  dicuss  marriage  itself  or  the  allied  inter-  J 
ests  found  in  the  domestic  conduct  books.    As  a  rule,  the  im- 
portance of  the  home  in  the  drama  of  the  time  is  chiefly  that 
of  a  convenient  setting  for  a  plot  which,  although  involving 
husband,  wife,  and  perhaps  children,  is  motivated  more  by 
outside  agents  than  by  actions  or  passions^tBn~theTamily 
circle.     Moreover,  in  those  plays  where  it  is  evident  that    l 
the  author  had  some  serious  intention  to  instruct,  as  in  How 
a  Man  May  Choose  a  Good  Wife  from  a  Bad,  the  lesson  often     . 
fails  of  actual  demonstration.     Nevertheless,  a  number  of 
plays  remain  which  do  present  domestic  conditions,  and  if 
indeed  they  are  not  motivated  to  any  great  extent  by  family 
relations,  they  at  least  offer  marital  problems  for  thought 
and  discussion.    The  commonest  subject  presented  in  thts"\ 
connection  was  the  situation  produced  in  a  family  by  an  I 
extraordinary  wife,  a  creature  who  seems  to  have  existed 
in  but  two  types,  the  ''complete  shrew"  and  the  ''perfect  / ,. 
sheep. ^'    In  addition,  we  find  the  "horrible  example"  play  ' 
of  marriage  at  its  worst,  plays  on  the  contention  of  parents 
and  children  in  regard  to  marriage,  and  several  triangle  plays, 
like  A  Woman  Killed  with  Kindness,  wherein  the  author  seems 
to  have  had  a  real  feeling  for  the  subtle  possibilities  of  the 
domestic  drama  to  portray  the  more  intimate  thoughts, 
feelings,  and  situations  of  human  life.     In  as  much  as  all 
these  plays  have  a  distinct  connection,  of  subject  matter  at 
least,  with  general  domestic  literature  and  the  ideas  therein 
expressed,  it  will  be  worth  while  to  glance  briefly  at  some  of 
the  more  noteworthy. 


194  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

The  first  play  in  which  the  shrewish  wife  is  more  than 
episodic  is  the  well-known  comedy  Johan  Johan  usually 
attributed  to  John  Hejrwood,  c.  1532.  Here  she  is  not  only 
the  central  figure  but  the  motive  force  as  well,  and  the  fun  is 
chiefly  at  the  expense  of  her  too  patient  husband.  Up  to 
this  time,  the  shrew  is  primarily  a  comic  figure  in  the  drama, 
with  perhaps  just  a  touch  of  the  didactic;  but  about  the 
middle  of  the  century,  we  find,  in  Tom  Tyler  and  his  Wife, 
the  same  theme  used  in  a  semi-morality  play.  There  is  a 
certain  amount  of  fun  in  this  piece,  but  the  final  resolution 
is  entirely  serious,  in  which  the  wife  is  persuaded  by  Patience 
to  try  to  live  on  more  amicable  terms  with  the  world.  The 
two  plays  Juvenilis  Pater  Uxor  and  The  Disobedient  Child 
make  a  still  more  serious  use  of  the  shrew  in  employing  her 
as  one  of  the  chief  elements  in  driving  home  a  moral.  Both 
plays  are  on  the  theme  of  the  marriage  of  children  against 
the  wishes  of  their  parents,  in  which  the  wife  acts  the  part  of 
nemesis,  since  the  evils  of  both  marriages  are  due  largely  to 
the  fact  that  the  brides  turn  out  to  be  shrews.  Thus  what 
was  originally  a  comic  situation  at  the  expense  of  the  woman 
became  a  tragic  and  didactic  one  for  the  instruction  of  the 
man.  The  resultant  plots  might  almost  be  said  to  be 
dramatizations  of  certain  chapters  of  the  domestic  book, 
the  husband's  career  illustrating  the  value  of  the  warnings 
against  forbidden  marriages,  and  the  unattractive  character 
of  the  wife  representing  the  evil  results  of  the  woman's  flying 
in  the  face  of  St.  Paul's  dictum  and  usurping  the  authority 
over  the  man. 

But  with  the  decline  of  the  morality  play,  the  shrew,  when 
forming  the  central  figure  of  a  drama,  became  rehabilitated 
as  a  comic  character.  In  The  Taming  of  a  Shrew,  the  didactic 
element  has  given  away  altogether  to  the  comic.  The  for- 
jn  marriage  motive  is  also  absent,  and  the  play  resolves 
itself  into  the  mere  carrying  out  of  the  action  suggested  in 


% 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  195 

the  title.  The  single  serious  element  occurs  in  Kate's  final 
subjection  to  her  husband  and  her  speech  explaining  the 
reasons  for  her  docility.  Shakespeare's  adaptation  of  this 
play  under  the  almost  identical  title  needs  no  further  com- 
ment.^ An  important  contrast  between  these  two  plays  and 
their  predecessors  lies  in  the  fact  that,  whereas  the  earlier 
ones  were  written  for  the  instruction  of  the  man  in  regard  to 
marriage,  their  successors  have  no  well-defined  interest  in 
marriage  itself  but  merely  aim  to  present  an  entertaining 
combat  of  wits.  Thus,  although  the  wife  is  the  butt  of  the 
comedy,  it  may  not  be  pushing  a  point  too  far  to  find  an 
influence  of  the  growing  attitude  towards  woman  in  the  fact  1 
that  she  holds  an  equal  part  with  the  man  and  is  regarded  as  j 
a  foe  worthy  of  his  steel.  Later  plays  use  the  shrew  motive  j 
almost  entirely  for  the  purpose  of  amusement.  Fletcher,  in 
his  sequel  to  Shakespeare's  Shrew,  The  Woman's  Prize, 
reverses  the  course  of  the  action  and  builds  a  good  farce 
comedy  thereupon.  Here  Maria,  by  blockading  herself 
indoors  against  her  husband,  who  is  a  sottish,  carnally 
minded  brute,  successfully  acts  the  shrew  and  brings  him  to 
a  respectful  attitude  towards  her  and  a  realization  of  his  own 
shortcomings.^  At  bottom,  this  play  is  based  on  a  serious 
idea,  but  since  the  action  is  developed  by  comic  situation 
and  characters,  the  basic  theme  can  receive  but  little  con- 
sideration as  a  serious  issue.    The  remaining  shrews  of  current 

^  An  interesting  contrast  occurs  between  the  two  versions  of  Kate's 
last  speech.  In  the  earlier  play,  she  harks  back  to  Biblical  authority 
for  the  subjection  of  woman;  but  Shakespeare's  heroine  finds  her  sup- 
port in  romantic  traditions,  whereby,  since  the  husband  suffers  dangers 
and  hardships  abroad,  the  wife  should  be  willing  to  follow  and  obey 
him  at  home. 

'  Mary  in  Monsieur  Thomas  plays  similar  tricks  on  her  lover.    In-   y 
deed,  Fletcher's  heroines  in  comedy  are  usually  a  bit  shrewish,  and  like 
Kate  in  The  Shrew,  may  indicate  an  increasing  respect  for  woman's 
position  and  rights. 


196  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

drama  —  for  instance  the  hostile  wives  in  Porter's  Two 
Angry  Women  of  Abington,  Eyre's  wife  in  Dekker's  Shoe- 
makers^ Holiday  J  Candido's  wife  in  Dekker  and  Middleton's 
The  HonestWhore,Vt.  2,  Lady Cressingham  and  Mrs. Chamlet 
in  Middleton's  Anything  fcyr  a  Quiet  Life  —  play  but  small 
parts,  present  no  new  interests,  and  may  be  passed  over  with 
the  remark  that  since  the  shrew  motive  by  this  time  was 
used  for  comedy  only,  we  cannot  think  that  the  situations 
based  on  it  were  aimed  to  give  any  more  serious  attention  to 
such  incompatibility  of  temper  in  the  family  than  that  of 
laughing  the  offender  out  of  court. 
The  patient  wife,  though  a  frequent  figure  in  the  drama, 
^-^'presents  but  few  cases  of  real  interest.^  She  was  used  as 
early  as  1538  by  Radcliff  in  a  non-extant  play,  but  did  not 
come  into  prominence  as  a  type  until  the  end  of  the  century, 
when  she  appears  as  a  victim  in  three  situations:  (1)  as  a 
deserted  wife,  remaining  faithful  to  an  absent  husband 
(or  lover) ;  (2)  as  a  "patient  Grissel,"  loyal  and  loving  in  the 
face  of  her  husband's  cruelty;  (3)  in  a  triangle  plot  involving 
either  her  husband's  pursuit  of  another  woman  or  her  own 
persecution  by  a  would-be  lover.  In  one  way  or  another, 
most  of  the  leading  dramatists  of  the  day  used  the  patient 
wife  motive,  but  it  is  difficult  to  say  that  it  was  employed  in 
more  than  a  few  of  these  to  present  a  definite  moral  idea. 
In  Othello,  for  instance,  Desdemona  is  entirely  a  lay  figure, 
neither  consciously  furthering  the  action  of  the  play  nor 
awakening  any  particular  interest  on  the  part  of  the  audience 
except  as  a  pitiable  victim  of  circumstance.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  most  of  the  other  women  abused  or  deserted  by 
husbands  or  lovers,  such  as  Dorothea  in  Greene's  James  IV j 
Hero  in  Shakespeare's  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  Hermione  in 
The  Winter's  Tale,  Catherine  in  Henry  VIII,  Mrs.  Arthur  in 
How  a  Man  May  Choose,  Bellafronte  and  Infaeliche  in  The 
Honest  Whore,  Luce  in  The  London  Prodigal,  Isabella  in 

^  This  motive  originated  in  the  French  moralities  of  the  fourteenth 
century. 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  197 

Webster's  White  Devil,  and  others.  In  some  cases,  the  wife, 
though  passive  towards  her  husband's  or  lover's  character,  is 
active  in  rescuing  him  from  trouble  or  in  bringing  his  desertion 
to  an  end,  as  in  Patient  Grissel,  by  Dekker,  Chettle,  and 
Houghton,  in  Shakespeare's  AlVs  Well  that  Ends  Well,  and  in 
Heywood's  Fair  Maid  of  the  West,  Pt.  2.  In  the  first  of  these, 
she  solves  the  situation  by  the  mere  stubbornness  of  her 
patience;  in  AlVs  Well,  she  wins  her  husband  back  by 
deliberate  plotting;  and  in  The  Fair  Maid,  she  takes  ship 
and  goes  in  search  of  him.  In  a  very  few  patient  wife  plots, 
notably  Patient  Grissel,  the  husband  is  confessedly  ''testing" 
his  spouse  —  as  God  tested  Job  —  and  the  play  ends  when 
he  thinks  she  has  had  enough ;  in  others,  as  Henry  VIII  and 
The  White  Devil,  the  wife  drops  out  altogether,  her  case 
being  hopeless;  in  two  or  three,  Othello  and  The  Wonder  of 
Women  for  instance,  the  situation  is  allowed  to  run  to  its 
most  logical  conclusion  and  end  in  tragedy;  and  in  others, 
most  numerous  of  all,  the  author  concludes  a  tiresome  succes- 
sion of  sordid  scenes  by  bringing  husband  and  wife  to  a 
reconciliation,  and  having  placed  them  in  mutual  embrace, 
leaves  them  to  live  happily  together  ever  afterwards  as  a 
reward  for  never  having  been  able  to  live  happily  together 
before. 

It  is  evident  to  any  one  reading  these  plays  that  there 
must  have  existed  in  the  minds  of  the  dramatists  some  idea 
of  setting  forth  patience  as  a  wifely  virtue,  especially  in  such 
a  play  as  Patient  Grissel;  but  it  is  not  safe  to  read  more  than 
this  into  the  woman's  end  of  the  average  plot.  In  the  cases 
of  Isabella  and  Catherine,  one  can  hardly  assert  this  much, 
as  their  careers  cannot  be  taken  as  advertizing  the  desirable 
virtue  except  in  so  far  as  it  fulfils  specifications  in  being  its 
own,  and  only,  reward.  In  most  of  the  plays,  although  the 
wife's  patience  surpasses  the  bounds  of  all  reason,  it  really  has 
little  or  no  effect  upon  the  plot  except  to  provide  a  constant 


198  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

Constance  whenever  the  villainous  husband  is  ready  to  reward 
her  with  an  eleventh-hour  reformation.  In  other  words,  the 
patient  wife  in  such  plays  exists  less  as  a  model  for  woman- 
\/  ;  kind  than  as  a  convenient  means  to  the  dramatist  for  keeping 
one  thread  of  his  plot  well  in  hand.  Exception  may  be  taken 
to  the  last  two  statements  in  the  cases  of  Patient  Grissel,  AlVs 
Well,  and  Wilkins'  Miseries  of  Enforced  Marriage,  since  in 
these  the  wife  puts  herself  in  the  wrong,  to  some  degree  at 
least,  at  the  outset  and  may  logically  be  expected  to  have 
to  work  out  her  own  salvation.  Grissel,  like  Margaret  in 
Greeners  Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay,  consents  to  a 
marriage  well  above  her  own  station  of  life  and  owes  it  to 
society  to  prove  herself  worthy  of  the  alliance.  Helena  plays 
a  far  from  gracious  part  at  the  opening  of  All's  Well  by  forc- 
ing herself,  with  the  help  of  the  King,  upon  Bertram;  and 
having  thus  usurped  the  authority  over  the  man,  must  suffer 
in  consequence.  From  the  first,  she  is  the  protagonist;  and 
as  the  abuse  she  receives  from  her  husband  is  desertion  only, 
which  she  fully  deserved,  she  appears  more  as  a  woman  fight- 
ing for  what  she  believes  to  be  her  rights  than  as  a  patient 
wife  waiting  for  them  to  be  showered  into  her  lap.  Katherine, 
in  Miseries  of  Enforced  Marriage,  is  similar  in  some  degree  to 
Helena,  since  she  allows  herself  to  be  party  to  a  marriage 
forced  upon  Scarborow  after  he  has  been  made  to  break  his 
former  contract  with  Clare;  but  like  her  sisters  in  How  a 
Man  May  Choose,  The  London  Prodigal,  and  other  plays,  her 
subsequent  career  amounts  merely  to  watchful  waiting  for 
her  husband  to  return  to  her  arms  after  going  to  the  devil  in 
his  own  way.  It  seems  clear  in  these  three  plays,  as  well  as 
in  a  few  others  on  the  same  motive  which  are  noted  below, 
that  the  dramatist  was  actually  attacking  the  problem  of  the 
^  abused  wife;  but  except  in  the  case  of  Grissel,  whose  abuse 
was  more  apparent  than  real,  he  reached  no  conclusion. 
Among  the  plays  which  we  may  classify  as  horrible  exam- 


WIDER  RA.NGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  199 

pies  of  unfortunate  marriages,  we  may  cite  two  illustrating 
the  evil  of  adultery  and  resultant  viciousness,  two  dealing 
with  forced  marriage,  and  two  whose  titles  suggest  them 
to  have  been  written  with  didactic  intent.  The  first  pair, 
the  anonymous  Arden  of  F  aver  sham  and  A  Warning  for  Fair 
Women,  which  are  practically  identical  in  plot,  present  a  com- 
monplace sequence  of  events  leading  from  a  triangle  situation 
of  husband,  wife,  and  paramour.  The  greater  part  of  both  is 
taken  up  with  the  persistent  attempts  of  the  wife  and  her 
gallant  to  murder  the  husband,  and  both  end  with  the  villains 
in  the  hands  of  the  law.  As  presenting  the  evil  results  of 
illicit  love,  these  plays  have  a  certain  amount  of  crude  force; 
but  since  the  husband  in  each  case  offends  only  by  existing, 
it  would  seem  that  the  dramatist  had  aimed  merely  to  exhibit 
the  ugliness  of  sin  and  not  to  discuss  the  relations  of  husband 
and  wife.  Nevertheless,  as  attempts  to  deal  with  an  existing 
domestic  problem,  these  two  plays  are  worthy  of  attention. 
The  forced  marriage  situation  occurs  in  The  London  Prodigal 
and  The  Miseries  of  Enforced  Marriage,  both  of  which  fail  to 
demonstrate  convincingly  the  advertised  lesson,  since  the 
imhappiness  of  each  couple  is  due  less  to  the  forced  marriage 
than  to  the  simple  fact  that  the  husband  is  a  rascal.  This  is 
apparent  especially  in  The  London  Prodigal,  where  the  man 
is  anxious  for  the  alliance  but  the  girl  is  forced  into  it  by  her 
father.  It  should  be  said,  however,  that  the  forcing  of  the 
bride  is  not  particularly  emphasized,  and  perhaps  the  dram- 
atist had  no  intention  of  making  it  a  motivating  element. 
But  the  title  of  the  second  play  gives  us  distinctly  to  under- 
stand that  the  writer  had  in  mind  the  presentation  of  a 
definite  marriage  problem,  a  forced  marriage  complicated  by 
a  broken  contract.^  This  situation  forecasts  a  very  interesting 

*  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  The  Miseries  of  Enforced  Marriage,  like 
Arden  of  Faversham,  A  Warning  for  Fair  Women,  and  The  Yorkshire 
Tragedy,  deals  with  actual  crimes  recently  committed. 


■.i^ 


200  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

play  involving  husband,  former  sweetheart,  and  wife;  but 
none  of  the  possibilities  of  the  triangle  are  realized.  The 
husband,  angered  at  the  marriage  forced  upon  him,  soon 
deserts  his  wife;  but  instead  of  returning  to  his  sweetheart, 
he  pursues  the  primrose  path  with  evil  companions  until  he 
is  reduced  to  supporting  himself  by  swindling  and  thievery. 
Just  as  he  is  preparing  to  add  the  murder  of  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren to  his  other  pleasant  activities,  he  learns  that  his 
guardian,  the  original  trouble-maker,  is  dead  and  that  he  is 
heir  to  a  fortune.  This  solves  every  difficulty,  brings  order 
out  of  chaos,  and  unites  husband  and  wife  in  marital  bliss. 
Although,  as  may  be  seen,  the  miseries  of  the  marriage  are 
/not  convincingly  shown  to  have  resulted  from  its  having  been 
/  forced,  the  avowed  attempt  to  present  the  problem  is  none 
\  the  less  important.  The  titles  of  the  anonymous  A  Warning 
for  Fair  Women  and  of  How  a  Man  May  Choose  a  Good  Wife 
from  a  Bad,  sometimes  ascribed  to  Thomas  Heywood,  also 
tell  of  attempts  at  instruction  on  the  subject  of  matrimony. 
The  first,  already  noted,  in  a  way  fulfils  its  promise;  the 
second  does  not  get  beyond  the  picturing  of  a  patient  wife  — 
patient  ad  infinitum  and  ad  nauseam  —  and  of  a  villainous 
whore,  her  husband's  mistress.  Except  in  presenting  models 
"of  a  good  wife  and  a  bad  woman,  the  secret  of  how  the  inex- 
perienced are  to  tell  the  one  from  the  other  is  not  revealed. 
This  play  too,  then,  is  a  worthy  effort  but  hardly  an  achieve- 
ment of  its  apparent  purpose.  One  criticism  that  must  be 
passed  on  these  unhappy-marriage  plays,  except  the  first  two 
poted,  is  that  at  the  end  of  each  the  author  snatches  the  fat 
Ifrom  the  fire  by  reconciling  all  parties,  and  leaves  the  reader 
/  with  the  feeling  that  after  all  the  marriage  turns  out  success- 
fully; so  that  much  of  the  moral  force  present  in  the  two 
murder  plays  is  lost  to  the  others.  The  fact  that  where  the 
wife  is  the  offender  the  plays  result  in  tragedy,  but  where 
the  husband  performs  equal  and  worse  crimes  they  result  in 


WIDER  RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  201 

forgiveness  and  reconciliation,  is  no  mere  accident  but  in 
strict  keeping  with  the  domestic  ideals  of  the  day. 

Plays  involving  the  contention  of  children  against  parents 
in  regard  to  marriage  are  worthy  of  consideration  for  a 
moment  here  only  because  of  the  attention  given  to  this 
subject  in  the  domestic  books.  In  the  drama,  we  find  an 
interesting  development  in  the  use  of  the  situation  from  the 
typical  morality  showing  the  evils  of  marriages  made  against 
the  will  of  parents  to  the  romantic  comedy  where  the  parents 
are  made  the  dupes  of  the  young  people.  The  moralities 
Juventus  Pater  Uxor  and  The  Disobedient  Child,  discussed 
above,  illustrate  the  first  use,  and  further  comment  upon 
them  is  unnecessary.  Shakespeare  evidently  wished  to 
emphasize  the  child-parent  contention  in  Romeo  and  Juliet^ 
since  he  altered  the  original  story  to  make  Juliet  under  the 
legal  age  for  marriage  and  in  addition  shifted  the  contract 
made  for  her  by  her  parents  from  the  middle  to  the  beginning 
of  the  play.^  The  emphasizing  of  the  theme  of  crabbed  age 
and  youth  certainly  adds  vastly  to  the  original  plot,  but  it 
may  be  pushing  a  point  too  far  to  consider  this  its  chief 
motivation.  The  two  plays  in  which  a  marriage  is  forced 
upon  the  young  people.  The  London  Prodigal  and  Miseries 
of  Enforced  Marriage,  have  already  been  commented  upon. 
Up  to  this  time,  we  may  say  that  the  dramatist  evidently  had 
some  idea  of  driving  home  a  moral,  either  for  parents  or 
children,  in  his  use  of  the  child  versus  parent  motive;  but  in 
later  plays,  the  situation  becomes  a  typical  starting  point  for 
comedy,  although  more  serious  use  of  it  may  occasionally  be 

1  In  the  Bandello  version  of  the  story,  Juliet  is  almost  eighteen; 
in  Broke's  version,  she  is  sixteen;  in  the  play,  she  is  just  under  fourteen, 
as  is  carefully  brought  to  the  audience's  attention  in  act  1,  sc.  3,  and 
suggested  as  Lady  Capulet's  reason  for  wishing  her  contracted  at  once. 
The  marriage  with  Paris  is  broached  in  the  same  scene,  that  is,  before 
the  meeting  of  Juliet  with  Romeo;  thus  in  contracting  herself  to 
Romeo,  Juliet  consciously  defies  her  parents'  wishes. 


202  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

found.  Shakespeare  himself  used  the  motive  for  comedy  in 
the  Lorenzo-Jessica  incident  of  The  Merchant  of  Venice. 
In  Houghton's  Englishmen  for  my  Money,  three  sisters  outwit 
their  father,  who  wishes  to  contract  them  to  three  foreigners, 
and  marry  their  native  lovers.  In  The  Shoemakers^  Holiday, 
Lacy,  by  means  of  a  disguise,  succeeds  in  carrying  off  Rose, 
though  both  families  were  opposed  to  the  match.  In  The 
Two  Angry  Women  of  Abington,  the  mothers  only  oppose 
the  union,  but  again  it  is  successfully  brought  off.  The 
cruel  father  in  Drayton's  Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton  puts  his 
daughter  in  a  nunnery  in  order  to  foil  the  persistent  lover, 
but  he,  in  the  disguise  of  a  priest,  effects  her  escape  and  their 
subsequent  marriage.  Middleton's  Roaring  Girl  presents  a 
father  who,  having  arranged  a  match  for  his  son,  tries  to 
back  out  of  the  marriage  settlement;  but  the  son,  by  pre- 
tending to  be  in  love  with  a  supposed  prostitute,  succeeds  in 
making  his  father  carry  out  the  original  contract.  In  the 
subplot  of  The  Woman's  Prize,  Livia  outwits  her  father,  who 
wishes  to  marry  her  to  old  Morosa,  and  with  the  help  of  a 
friend,  weds  the  man  of  her  choice.  All  of  these  plays  are  but 
superficially  domestic;  that  is,  the  paternal  and  filial  ele- 
ments are  very  slight,  and  their  place  might  be  taken  just  as 
well  by  any  other  force  standing  in  the  way  of  the  marriage. 
The  most  that  can  be  said  of  this  situation  is  that  the  parents 
furnish  the  dramatist  with  a  convenient  obstacle  for  the 
young  people  to  overcome.  The  fact  that  the  parents  are 
made  ridiculous  in  their  attempt  to  carry  out  what  was  really 
their  right,  shows  how  far  the  drama  had  strayed  from  the 
use  it  originally  made  of  the  situation. 

The  triangle  of  husband,  wife,  and  friend,  which  today  is 
so  often  made  the  starting  point  of  a  domestic  drama,  was 
seldom  developed  in  this  way  during  the  period  under  con- 
sideration. Although  many  plays  may  be  found  dealing 
with   adultery,   incest,   and   other   crimes   against  marital 


WIDER   RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC  LITERATURE  203 

society,  such  situations  are  used  more  as  a  means  to  intro- 
duce or  complicate  a  plot  of  intrigue  and  adventure  than  to 
present  the  subtle  and  intimate  relations  of  family  life. 
Most  of  the  triangle  plays  which  do  discuss  or  touch  upon 
domestic  problems  have  already  been  noted  in  other  con- 
nections, for  example,  the  two  murder  plays,  several  of  the 
patient  wife  plays,  and  others.  Of  all  the  dramatists  of  the 
day,  Thomas  Heywood  alone  gives  evidence  of  a  realization 
of  the  great  possibilities  of  the  domestic  drama,  although 
others,  Shakespeare  especially,  at  moments  rise  to  heights  of 
unfulfilled  promise  in  this  field. ^ 

Heywood  drew  his  first  picture  of  a  noble  husband  and  ^ 
wife  in  Edward  IV.  Here  Jane  Shore  is  chosen  for  the 
"great  promotion*'  of  being  the  King's  mistress.  But  amid 
the  splendors  of  her  new  station,  she  remains  true  at  heart  to 
her  husband;  and  he,  realizing  that  she  is  powerless  in  the 
King's  hands,  is  steadfast  in  his  love  and  faith  to  her,  and 
after  she  is  cast  out  6f  court,  he  takes  care  of  her  at  the  peril 
of  his  life.  Since  opposition  to  the  royal  prerogative  was  im- 
possible, Jane  and  Master  Shore  are  able  to  contribute  to  the 
development  of  the  play  only  a  noble  picture  of  husband 
and  wife  true  to  each  other  and  to  their  marriage  vows  as  far 
as  they  are  able  in  the  face  of  extreme  persecution.  The 
length  to  which  this  tableau  is  drawn  out  shows  that  the 
dramatist  wished  to  emphasize  the  situation,  although  he 
was  unable  to  use  it  as  a  motive  force  in  the  main  plot.  In  A  \ 
Woman  Killed  with  Kindness,  Heywood  for  the  first  time  / 
in  English  drama  dealt  tenderly  with  the  erring  wife.    Here 

^  Hejrwood's  interest  in  domestic  literature  has  already  been  noted 
in  connection  with  his  books  on  women.  (See  above,  p.  162.)  It  may 
be  mentioned  that  the  story  of  Geraldine  occurs  both  in  the  History  of 
Woman,  Bk.  IV,  and  in  A  Woman  Killed  with  Kindness.  Unfortu- 
nately only  one  tenth  of  Heywood' s  plays  are  extant,  so  that  a  complete 
or  satisfactory  study  of  his  domestic  ideas  as  shown  in  his  dramatic 
work  is  impossible. 


204  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

Mrs.  Frankford,  more  out  of  sheer  weakness  than  out  of 
love  for  her  tempter,  falls  a  victim  to  his  pursuit.  At  the 
discovery  of  her  shame,  Frankford  conscientiously  faces  the 
problem  thus  brought  before  him  and  attempts  to  fit  punish- 
ment to  crime.  Although  his  solution  of  the  difficulty  —  that 
of  shutting  his  wife  up  in  solitary  confinement  —  may  leave  a 
good  deal  to  be  desired,  the  fact  that  he  acts  without  malice 
and  forgives  her  in  the  end  shows  an  entirely  new  attitude 
towards  the  fallen  woman,  who  as  a  rule  got  but  scant 
sympathy  in  either  the  drama  or  the  life  of  the  time.  Mrs. 
Frankford,  after  her  fall,  plays  a  part  almost  equal  to  her 
husband's;  for  realizing  her  own  guilt  and  his  fineness  of 
feeling  towards  her,  she  turns  from  her  lover  to  her  husband 
and  at  his  forgiveness  dies  happy.  In  The  English  Traveller y 
Heywood  again  touched  upon  somewhat  the  same  theme,  this 
time  basing  it  upon  a  January  and  May  situation  —  a 
favorite  problem  of  the  day  —  and  making  the  young  wife 
intrigue  with  a  false  friend  of  her  husband's.  Most  of  the 
play  is  concerned  with  the  pure  love  of  another  family  friend 
(a  theme  in  itself  worthy  of  note),  and  the  intrigue  is  not 
revealed  until  the  last  scene  of  the  play.  Again  the  erring 
wife  casts  off  her  lover  and  dies  repentant  and  finally  for- 
given. Since  all  three  of  these  plays  are  resolved  by  the  very 
convenient  death  of  the  wife,  it  is  evident  that  Heyivood 
found  no  real  solution  of  the  domestic  problem  he  attacked; 
but  in  his  treatment  of  both  husband  and  wife,  he  shows  him- 
self far  ahead  of  his  time  and  comes  near  to  the  modem 
attitude  of  malice  towards  none  but  charity  for  all.^ 

With  this  point  of  view  in  mind,  the  student  will  readily 
find  touches  in  not  a  few  plays  which  approach  Heywood's 
attitude  towards  man  and  woman  in  their  relations  to  each 
other.    Othello's  struggle  between  the  faith  of  love  and  the 

^  Cf.  also  Master  Generous  and  his  attempt  to  redeem  his  wife  in 
The  Late  Lancashire  Witches. 


WIDER   RANGES   OF  DOMESTIC   LITERATURE  205 

evidence  of  circumstances  is  an  obvious  example,  although  ^ 
this  play  is  a  study  of  the  man  only.    One  of  the  noblest 
couples  in  Elizabethan  drama  is  Massinissa  and  Sophonisba 
in  Marston's  The  Wonder  of  Womerij  where  the  husband  pre-  ^ 
serves  his  faith  in  his  wife  despite  slander,  and  the  wife 
willingly  gives  her  life  in  order  to  save  her  own  honor  and  ^ 
fulfil  her  husband's  pledge.  ,. But  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  t/ 
multiply  examples. 

As  to  the  influence  of  the  domestic  and  other  conduct 
books  on  the  drama  or  the  drama's  influence  on  the  conduct 
books,  we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  very  little  existed. 
On  the  whole,  the  most  we  can  say  is  that  in  both  we  often 
find  expression  of  the  same  attitudes  and  ideas,  which  in 
each  case  seem  to  have  been  the  reflection  of  current  thought 
rather  than  an  influence  from  one  field  to  the  other.  The 
drama,  as  well  as  the  other  forms  of  literature  previously  dis- 
cussed, illustrates  the  attitudes  of  the  time  towards  woman; 
and  conversely,  contemporary  opinions  regarding  woman 
help  to  explain  her  position  in  the  drama.  It  is  noteworthy 
that  in  very  few  plays  is  she  the  protagonist.  Her  position 
of  subservience  in  the  family  was  probably  the  largest 
element  in  preventing  the  domestic  relations  of  husband  and 
wife  from  being  by  themselves  the  motivating  force  of  a 
realistic  play,  except  one  of  very  light  nature  such  as  The 
Shrew.  Elsewhere  family  relations  are  of  secondary  impor-  \ 
tance  in  the  plot,  which  is  motivated  more  by  some  influence 
from  without  than  from  within  the  home  circle.  Othello's 
tragedy,  for  instance,  is  brought  about  much  more  by  lago 
than  by  Desdemona  or  himself.  The  same  situation  occurs 
in  the  child  versus  parent  play,  the  motive  force  being  not  the  \ 
opposition  of  youth  to  age  but  the  attraction  of  the  child  to  \ 
the  outside  agent,  here  the  lover.  It  is,  of  course,  difiicult  to 
construct  a  play  on  domestic  relations  alone  and  uninflu- 
enced strongly  from  without,  but  the  modern  and  better  way    (/- 


\\^ 


20Cr^  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   KELATIONS 

is  to  make  the  outside  force  contributary  rather  than  funda- 
mental.^ To  this  ideal  none  of  the  Elizabethan  playwrights 
reached;  Heywood  came  the  nearest,  surpassing  even 
Shakespeare,  and  in  Edward  IV  and  A  Woman  Killed  con- 
structed plays  in  which  the  outside  influence  ceases  after 
bringing  things  to  a  climax,  and  the  falling  action,  here  more 
than  usually  important,  is  carried  on  by  husband  and  wife 
alone.  Despite  the  apparent  lack  of  influence  from  the  drama 
upon  the  conduct  books,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  it 
had  a  distinct  influence  upon  the  thought  of  the  day.  Cer- 
tainly the  presentation  of  so  many  plays  dealing  with  love, 
marriage,  carnal  sin,  and  so  forth,  whether  romantic,  his- 
torical, or  domestic,  must  have  had  an  effect  upon  the 
popular  conception  of  family  relations;  and  in  the  imagina- 
tive literature  of  the  theatre,  the  idealization  of  woman  and 
the  recognition  of  woman's  importance  gained  a  public 
hearing  which  could  not  pass  unnoticed. 

*   Cf.,  for  instance,  such  a  play  as  Ibsen's  Doll's  Hcmse  or  Brieux's 
Blanchette. 


APPENDIX  A 

ENGLISH  WRITING  ON  THE  DIVORCE  OF 
HENRY  VIII  AND  CATHERINE 

The  divorce  of  Henry  VIII  from  his  first  wife,  which  occupied  a 
large  part  of  his  attention  from  1527  to  1534,  was  the  subject  of 
controversial  writing  in  England,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  and 
Spain,  and  was  of  extreme  importance  politically  in  every  country 
of  Europe,  affecting  even  Turkey.  Every  man  of  any  prominence 
in  England  was  involved  in  the  agitation,  either  as  a  pamphleteer 
or  as  a  poHtical  supporter  of  one  side  or  the  other.  There  were 
two  main  points  in  the  controversy:  (1)  whether  or  not  a  man 
might  marry  his  brother's  widow;  (2)  whether  the  Pope  had 
exceeded  his  authority  in  allowing  Henry  to  marry  Catherine, 
who  had  been  the  wife  of  his  brother  Arthur. ^  A  third  point,  of 
less  consequence,  was  the  question  as  to  whether  the  marriage 
of  Arthur  and  Catherine  had  been  consummated  by  bodily  knowl- 
edge, and  if  so,  or  if  not,  what  effect  this  had  upon  the  case.^  These 
three  points  were  the  entire  subject  matter  of  the  debate. 

1  The  King's  supporters  held,  of  course,  that  in  no  case  might  a 
man  marry  his  brother's  widow  and  that  the  Pope  had  had  no  proper 
authority  to  allow  the  marriage  with  Catherine  in  the  beginning. 
The  King's  hypocrisy  in  the  matter  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  a 
marriage  with  the  sister  of  a  mistress  was  as  much  against  ecclesiastical 
law  as  one  with  the  widow  of  a  brother,  since  both  were  within  the  for- 
bidden degrees  of  the  Levitical  law  (see  above,  p.  10,  nn.  1.  3).  Anne 
Boleyn's  sister  Mary  had  been  Henry's  mistress  (see  statement  by  Pole, 
p.  222  below);  thus  the  law  he  was  trying  to  establish  in  order  to  in- 
validate the  existing  union  with  his  wife,  equally  forbade  the  intended 
one  with  his  sweetheart. 

2  The  law  of  Deuteronomy  (XXV,  5)  enjoining  the  marriage  of  a 
man  with  his  brother's  widow  in  case  she  was  childless,  if  proved  to 
supersede  that  of  Leviticus  (XVIII,  16,  and  XX,  21),  which  men- 

207 


208  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

In  the  Letters  and  State  Papers  of  Henry  VIII,  there  are  listed 
some  sixty  or  seventy  documents,  preserved  at  the  London  Record 
Office  and  elsewhere,  dealing  with  this  controversy,  which  range 
from  manuscripts  of  a  few  pages  to  printed  books  of  considerable 
length.  1  Almost  all  of  them  are  in  Latin,  and  only  a  few  ever 
appeared  in  printed  form.  In  addition  to  these,  there  are  several 
better  known  works  on  the  subject.  No  account  of  this  contro- 
versy as  a  whole  has  ever  been  given,  but  a  few  of  the  books  in- 
volved have  been  mentioned,  usually  with  mistakes  as  to  date,  in 
works  on  the  Reformation. 

Difficulties  as  to  date,  authorship,  etc.,  arise  at  the  very  outset 
of  our  investigation  and  grow  more  complicated  the  further  we 
go  in  it.  The  first  mention  of  any  controversial  writing,  accord- 
ing to  the  present  chronological  arrangement  of  state  documents, 
is  in  two  letters  to  the  King,  one  by  Richard  Pace  and  the  other 
by  Robert  Wakefield.  Neither  of  the  original  manuscripts  bears 
a  date,  but  both  are  included  in  the  State  Papers  under  the  year 
1527.*  The  reason  for  thus  placing  them  is  that  they  occur  in 
printed  form  at  the  end  of  a  book  by  Wakefield,  Kotser  Codicis  R. 
Wakefeldi,  where  they  are  dated  1527.  It  is  clear  from  internal 
evidence  that  Wakefield's  letter  was  written  a  day  or  two  after 
Pace's;  thus  we  may  consider  them  together.  The  information 
supplied  by  them  is:  (1)  from  Pace,  that  he  had  prepared  a  trea- 
tise "not  without  the  Councell  of  Maister  Wakfeld"  in  behalf 
of  the  King;  (2)  from  Wakefield,  "I  have  and  will  .  .  .  answer 
the  bishop  of  Rochester's  ^  book."  These  letters  and  their  sup- 
posed date  have  been  made  the  starting  point  of  a  good  deal  of 

tioned  no  exceptions  to  its  forbidden  degrees,  would  render  Henry's 
cause  without  Biblical  support.  To  obviate  this,  in  any  case,  his  sup- 
porters interpreted  the  word  childless  to  mean  virginal.  Thus  the 
point  as  to  whether  there  had  been  carnalis  copula  between  Arthur 
and  Catherine,  was  of  some  importance. 

^  Most  of  these  are  listed  at  the  beginning  of  Vol.  V,  but  others  are 
mentioned  both  before  and  after  this. 

*  State  Papers,  IV,  3233  and  3234.  They  are  here  summarized  only. 
They  are  given  in  full  form  in  Knight,  Erasmus,  App.  VIII  and  IX. 

»  John  Fisher  was  Bishop  of  Rochester. 


APPENDIX  A  209 

history  and  biography.  I  am  now  able  to  demonstrate  that  they 
were  antedated  (probably  by  Berthelet,  the  printer,  who  is  often 
in  error  as  to  dates)  and  were  in  fact  not  written  until  1529,  as 
follows:  (1)  The  Kotser  Codicis,  in  which  they  are  first  given  a 
date,  could  not  possibly  have  been  printed  before  December,  1530, 
as  is  shown  below.  ^  (2)  In  1527,  the  divorce  was  still  a  secret  matter  ^' 
and  was  not  discussed  outside  of  a  very  narrow  circle.  (3)  Wake- 
field says  in  his  letter  that  he  shifted  from  the  Queen's  side  to  the 
King's  because  of  the  claim,  which  he  beheved  true,  that  she  had 
been  carnally  known  by  Arthur.  This  point  was  first  ojQ&cially 
advanced  on  June  28,  1529.  (4)  All  evidence  (except  Wakefield's 
letter)  points  to  the  fact  that  Fisher's  first  writing  on  the  subject 
was  the  "httle  book"  presented  at  the  Queen's  trial  on  June  28, 
1529  (Wakefield  could  not  have  undertaken  to  answer  Fisher's 
book  before  it  was  written).  (5)  Pace  in  his  letter  speaks  of  an 
"Alphabete  in  Hebrewe  Tunge"  and  asks  the  King  "to  delyver 
the  saide  Alphabete  to  Maister  Foxe  your  selfe."  This  reference 
is,  of  course,  to  Edward  Foxe,  who  in  1527  had  never  been  heard 
of  by  the  court.  His  admission  as  prebendary  of  Osbaldwicke  on 
Nov.  8,  1527,  was  his  first  step  out  of  obscurity.  But  in  1528,  he 
gained  prominence  through  being  sent  by  Gardiner  to  Rome,  and 
after  his  return,  was  in  attendance  upon  the  King  at  Waltham 
during  August,  1529.  The  letters  then,  are  definitely  settled  to 
have  been  written  during  that  month,  and  the  history  and  biog- 
raphy based  on  the  earher  date  must  be  revised. 

The  writings  mentioned  by  Pace  and  Wakefield  being  out  of  the 
way  for  the  present,  we  find  that  the  King  himself  was  the  first  in 
the  field  of  written  controversy.  Whether  he  entered  upon  his 
own  initiative  and  wrote  according  to  his  own  knowledge  and 
skill,  or  whether,  in  the  whole  course,  he  acted  upon  the  sugges- 
tion and  with  the  assistance  of  his  ecclesiastical  advisers,  we  can- 
not say.  In  1528,  he  writes  to  Anne  Boleyn  that  he  has  a  book  '^ 
in  progress,  to  which  he  had  devoted  four  hours'  work  that  very 
day .2    Later,  in  1532,  Chapuys,  in  writing  to  Charles  V  of  Foxe's 

1  See  below,  p.  221. 

2  State  Papers,  IV,  4597.    This  letter  is  not  dated,  but  it  is  recorded 
imder  the  year  1528. 


210  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

journey  to  France,  says  that  he  carried  ''many  books  touching 
the  divorce  most  of  them  written  by  the  King."  ^  Other  references 
occur  in  letters  of  the  time  to  "the  King's  book";  but  it  is 
impossible  to  tell  whether  these  are  to  the  work  mentioned  by  the 
King  and,  if  so,  what  it  was,  or  whether  the  phrase  means  a 
book  of  the  King's  authorship  or  merely  one  in  his  cause.  At 
any  rate,  no  extant  book  is  now  attributed  to  him,  except  the 
Glasse  of  the  Truthe,  whose  sUght  claim  to  royal  authorship  is 
discussed  below.^ 

^y  John  Fisher,  then,  is  the  first  man  to  whom  we  can  definitely 
assign  a  book  on  this  subject  which  is  now  extant  and  correctly 
attributed  to  him.  During  the  course  of  the  divorce,  he  was  the 
author  of  seven  or  eight  books  on  the  Queen's  side  of  the  dispute, 
most  of  which  were  never  printed.  Fisher's  biographers  have 
overlooked  these  almost  entirely.^  On  June  28,  1529,  Fisher  was 
called  upon  to  appear  before  the  Pope's  legates,  and  there  he 
both  defended  the  Queen's  cause  and  presented  a  "little  book" 
on  the  subject  of  the  divorce.  The  title  of  this  work  is  given  in 
the  State  Papers  as  Licitum  fuisse  matrimonium  Henr.  VIII  cum 
Catherina  relicta  fratris  sui  Arthuri.*  The  book  was  never  printed, 
but  a  manuscript  copy  still  exists  in  the  Cambridge  University 
Library,  No.  1315  (12).  It  is  but  forty-four  leaves  in  all.  Tanner 
mentions  this  book  also,  giving  it  the  title  Defensorum  matrimonii 

1  State  Papers,  V,  251. 

«  See  below,  p.  219  fif. 

'  Bridgett,  Blessed  John  Fisher,  p.  162  fif.  and  notes,  is  the  only 
biographer  to  give  any  account  of  Fisher's  writings  on  the  divorce  (even 
the  Camh,  Hist,  Eng.  Lit.  is  deficient  here),  and  his  remarks  are  both 
inadequate  and  inaccurate.  He  says  that  some  were  printed  in  Spain, 
which  is  true,  but  goes  on  to  mention  three,  which  investigation  proves 
to  be  all  the  same  one,  the  De  Causa,  inaccurately  described  in  different 
ways.  He  says  further:  "  MS.  copies  of  these  treatises  are  in  the  Record 
Office,  the  British  Museum,  and  the  Cambridge  University  Library. 
The  library  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  possesses  one  of  his 
printed  books."  This  printed  book,  however,  is  not  on  the  divorce; 
and  I  have  been  able  to  find  no  manuscript  treatise  of  it  in  the  British 
Museum.    The  other  documents  1  mention  below. 

*  State  Papers,  IV,  5728. 


APPENDIX  A  211 

regis  cum  Catherina,  lib,  1,^  but  describes  it  as  beginning  with  the 
same  words  as  does  the  Cambridge  manuscript.  He  says  further, 
*' Saepissime  citatur  a  Nic.  Harpsfeld  in  Hist,  divortii."  He  is 
wrong  here;  the  book  discussed  by  Harpsfield  is  not  this  one.^ 
The  King  repHed  to  Fisher  in  a  declaration  to  the  judges,  in  which 
"the  Latin  vocabulary  is  ransacked  for  the  choicest  epithets  of 
vituperation."  ^  On  Feb.  6,  1530,  Chapuys,  writing  to  Charles  V, 
says,  "Since  my  last  the  bishop  of  Rochester  has  finished  revising 
the  book  he  lately  wrote.  .  .  .  Since  then  he  was  written  another."  * 
The  last  previously  recorded  letter  from  Chapuys  to  Charles  is 
dated  Oct.  25,  1529.  The  new  book  by  Fisher  is  probably  the 
De  Causa  Matrimonii,  described  in  the  State  Papers  as  "Fisher's 
Second  Book  on  the  Divorce."  *  This  book  was  pubhshed  at  Com- 
pluti,  Spain,  in  August,  1530.  It  consists  of  forty-one  foUos  of 
weighty  scholasticism,  discussing  the  disputed  passages  of  Leviti- 
cus and  Deuteronomy,  especially  the  latter,  and  giving  opinions 
and  examples  on  the  subject  from  the  time  of  the  early  fathers 
down.  Chapuys  refers  to  the  pubhcation  of  Fisher's  books  in  Spain 
in  a  letter  to  the  Emperor  dated  Nov.  27,  1530,  and  further  says 
that  he  has  commissioned  May  to  have  two  of  them  printed  for 
distribution  in  Parliament.'  On  Dec.  4,  he  writes  again,  "The 
bishop  of  Rochester  has  finished  a  book  in  favour  of  the  Queen."  ' 
It  would  seem  that  this  was  a  later  book,  but  further  identifica- 
tion is  impossible. 

About  this  time,  Thomas  Abel,  the  Queen's  chaplain,  appears 
to  have  busied  himself  in  her  cause.  Wood  says  that  in  1529  or 
1530  "he  shewed  himself  a  zealous  advocate  against  the  divorce  of 
the  said  queen.  ...  At  which  time  he  wrote.  Tract,  de  non  dis- 
solvendo  Henrici  &  Catherinae    mMrimonio."  »    Tanner  mentions 

^  Tanner,  Bibliotheca  Britannica-Hibemica,  p.  281. 

2  See  below,  p.  217  ff. 

'  State  Papers,  IV,  p.  cccclxxix. 

*  Ibid.,  6199. 

'  Ibid.,  IV.,  6596.    Although  quite  accessible,  this  book  is  not  even 
mentioned  in  the  D.N.B.  account  of  Fisher. 
«  Ibid.,  IV,  6738. 
7  Ibid.,  IV,  6757. 

*  Wood,  Athenae  Oxonienses,  I,  119. 


\y 


212  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

another  book  by  Abel  on  the  subject,  Invicta  Veritas:  An  Answer 
that  by  no  manner  of  law  it  may  be  lawful  for  the  King  to  be  divorced 
from  the  Queen's  Grace,  etc.^  This  seems  to  have  been  in  English. 
It  is  mentioned  by  Wakefield  in  his  Kotser  Codicis,  and,  as  Tanner 
says,  *'citat  et  repugnat."  Both  of  Abel's  books  are  apparently 
non-extant.  The  State  Papers,  under  the  year  1531,  cite  three 
treatises  in  reply  to  Abel,*  one  of  which  is  entitled,  A  confutation 
of  that  answer  which  Master  John  Abell,  priest,  lately  made  against 
the  Book  of  Determinations  of  the  Universities  in  the  King's  cause."  » 
This  seems  to  refer  to  Abel's  second  treatise.  The  determinations 
of  the  universities  were  not  rendered  until  1530;  the  date  of  the 
book  containing  them  —  another  problem  —  is  discussed  below.'* 
Chapuys,  writing  in  1532,  speaks  of  a  book  by  a  chaplain  of  the 
Queen  (doubtless  Abel)  as  being  in  print  but  prohibited  by  the  King.^ 
Wakefield  fulfilled  his  promise  to  reply  to  the  Bishop  of  Roches- 
ter's book  by  writing  the  Kotser  Codicis  R.  Wakefeldi  quo  praeter 
ecclesiae  .  .  .  decretum,  probatur  conjugium  cum  fratria  carnaliter 
cognita,  illidtum  .  .  .  inierdictumque  esse,  etc.^  Pocock  has  over- 
thrown the  date  originally  set  for  this  book  (1528),'  but  has  come 
to  no  definite  conclusion  himself  as  to  the  correct  date  of  either 
its  writing  or  its  publication.  The  matter  is  so  involved  with 
the  date  of  Wakefield's  other  book  on  the  subject  that  it  seems  best 
to  postpone  the  problem  for  the  moment.'  Suffice  it  to  say  here 
that  my  conclusion  is  that  it  was  written  immediately  after  Fisher's 
first  book  —  that  is  in  the  summer  of  1529  —  and  that  it  was  not 

^  Tanner,  p.  1. 

«  Stale  Papers,  V,  1. 

'  There  is  still  a  question  as  to  whether  "John  Abell,  priest,"  may 
be  taken  to  refer  to  the  Queen's  chaplain,  whose  first  name  was  Thomas. 
The  index  to  the  volume  cites  the  two  names  separately,  but  I  can  find 
no  other  reference  to  any  John  Abell. 

*  See  below,  p.  214  £f. 

6  State  Papers,  V,  1256. 

•  Wood  correctly  describes  this  book  as  the  one  mentioned  by  Bale 
and  Pitts  imder  the  title  of  De  nan  ducenda  Fratria. 

'  Pocock,  in  notes  to  his  edition  of  Harpsfield's  Pretended  Divorce, 
p.  309. 

8  See  below,  p.  221. 


APPENDIX   A  213 

published  until  1536.  The  Kotser  Codicis  is  aimed  to  be  a  thorough 
refutation  of  Fisher's  argument;  but  despite  the  author's  conceited 
remark  that  he  intended  to  so  humble  his  opponent  that  he  would 
"be  ashamed  to  wade  or  meddle  any  further  in  the  matter,"  ^  the 
book  seems  to  have  passed  entirely  unnoticed  by  the  leaders  on 
both  sides  of  the  controversy. 

In  the  summer  of  1529,  Cranmer  was  presented  to  the  King 
by  Foxe,  and  shortly  afterwards  suggested  an  argument  in  favor 
of  the  divorce  in  which  Henry  declared  that  he  "had  the  right  sow 
by  the  ear."  The  book  which  resulted,  at  the  King's  order,  from 
this  conversation,  has  had  a  strange  history  at  the  hands  of  biogra- 
phers and  bibUophiles.  A  reference  to  it  in  a  letter  from  Gardiner 
to  the  King,  dated  February,  1530,  fixes  its  date  pretty  accurately .^ 
Harpsfield,  who  in  his  Pretended  Divorce  between  Henry  VIII 
and  Catherine  (written  in  Mary's  reign)  attempted  to  refute  all 
important  works  on  the  King's  side,  does  not  even  mention  this 
book.  Strype  seems  to  be  the  only  historian  to  have  seen  it,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  from  his  account  whether  it  was  in  print  or 
in  manuscript  only.^  Pocock,  in  his  Records  of  the  Reformationf 
prints  chapter  headings  under  the  caption  of  "Cranmer's  book  in 
favour  of  the  divorce."  *  Jenkyns  reports  the  book  as  lost  and 
repudiates  the  articles  printed  by  Pocock.^  The  latter  is  clearly 
wrong  in  printing  these  headings  as  coming  from  Cranmer's  book, 
for,  as  Jenkyns  points  out,  the  Archbishop's  name  on  the  first 
leaf  of  the  manuscript  copy  (now  in  the  British  Museum)  denotes 
his  ownership  only.  Furthermore,  the  articles  therein  do  not 
agree  with  Strype's  description  of  the  work  in  question.  The  book, 
so  far  as  I  can  find,  is  non-extant;  but  Jenkyns  goes  wrong  in 
attempting  to  describe  it,  for  not  having  seen  it  himself,  he  has 
no  right  to  attribute  to  it  points  not  mentioned  by  Strype;  nor  has 

1  Wakefield,  letter  to  Henry,  State  Papers,  IV,  3234. 

2  State  Papers,  IV,  6247. 

'  Strype,  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  1,  7.  Todd,  in  his  Life  of  Cranmer^ 
I,  21,  also  gives  an  account  of  the  book  but  furnishes  no  evidence  of 
having  seen  it  himself. 

*  Pocock,  op.  cit.,  I,  334.  An  annotator  in  Burnet's  Reformation^ 
I,  146,  makes  a  similar  mistake. 

^  Jenkyns,  Remains  of  Cranmer,  I,  viii  and  notes. 


214  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

he  any  authority  for  saying  that  its  arguments  were  summarized 
in  a  book  "published  .  .  .  by  .  .  .  Berthelet,  with  the  judgments 
of  the  Universities  prefixed,"  by  which  he  evidently  refers  to  the 
Censurae.^  Although  the  two  are  similar  in  some  respects,  they 
differ  in  others.  Strype  describes  Cranmer's  treatise  as  showing 
that  "no  man,  jure  divino,  could  or  ought  to  marry  his  brother's 
widow"  and  that  "the  Bishop  of  Rome  ought  by  no  means  to  dis- 
pence  to  the  contrary."  ^  The  King  was  much  pleased  with  the 
book  when  it  appeared,  and  its  influence  in  winning  the  English 
universities  over  to  his  side  is  well  attested.  Cranmer  was  des- 
patched in  the  same  year  to  spread  its  gospel  throughout  France, 
Germany,  and  Italy,  and  even  went  to  Rome  to  defend  its  prin- 
ciples in  pubhc  debate  before  the  Pope,  but  an  opportunity  was 
not  granted  him.^ 

In  1530,  seven  continental  universities  returned  their  decisions 
on  the  divorce  question  in  favor  of  the  King.  These  resulted  in  a 
weighty  book,  dated  in  the  colophon  April,  1530,  entitled  Gravis- 
simae  atque  exactissimae  illustrissimarum  totiits  Italiae,  et  Galliae 
Academiarum  Censurae  .  .  .  de  veritate  illius  propositionis,  Vide- 
licet ^ue  ducere  relidam  fratris  mortui  sine  liberis  ita  sit  de  iure  divino 
et  naturali  prohihiturnf  vJt  nullus  Pontifex  super  huiusmodi  matri- 
moniis  contractis,  sine  contrahendis  dispensare  possit.*  Although  this 
book  may  have  been  undertaken  by  April,  this  date  is  out  of  the 
question  for  its  publication,  as  only  one  of  the  university  decisions, 
which  are  printed  in  the  first  part  of  the  volume,  was  rendered  by 
that  time.*    Pocock  says  that  these  pages  were  "  certainly  printed 

^  An  annotator  in  Burnet's  Reformation,  I,  148,  goes  wrong  in  de- 
scribing the  Censurae  in  a  note  regarding  Cranmer's  book,  as  if  he  either 
confused  the  two  or  took  them  to  be  identical. 

*  Strype,  Cranmer,  I,  13. 

*  From  the  circulation  of  the  book,  it  would  seem  as  if  it  must  have 
been  in  print;  but  if  so,  it  is  difiBcult  to  account  for  its  subsequent 
disappearance. 

*•  Herein  referred  to,  for  short,  as  the  Censurae. 

*  The  dates  of  these  decisions  are:  Orleans,  Apr.  5,  1529;  Paris 
{facultas  decretorum),  May  23,  1530;  Angers,  May  7,  1530;  Paris 
(facuUas  theologicum) ,  July  2,  1530;  Bourges,  June  10,  1530;  Bologna, 
n.  d.;  Padua,  July  1,  1530;  Toulouse,  Oct.  1,  1530. 


APPENDIX  A  215 

after  the  rest  of  the  book."  ^  I  fail  to  see  any  evidence  for  such  a 
statement,  as  the  decisions  of  the  universities  are  referred  to  occa- 
sionally throughout  the  work.^  It  seems  much  more  likely  that 
the  book  was  misdated  by  Berthelet  and  that  April,  1531,  is  the 
correct  date.  Further  evidence  on  this  point  is:  (1)  There  are  no 
references  to  it  in  1530.  (2)  It  seems  not  to  have  been  translated 
until  1531.  (3)  Fisher's  reply  was  not  undertaken  until  the  sunomer 
of  1531.  (4)  Vives'  reply  was  not  pubUshed  until  1532.  (5)  Strype 
says  that  the  decisions  of  the  universities  were  presented  to  the 
House  of  Commons  in  January,  1531,  "and  afterwards,  being  made 
into  a  book,  were  printed,  entitled  Gravissimae,  etc."  (giving  the 
title  in  full).'  (6)  Three  contemporary  references,  which  seem  to 
be  to  this  book,  all  point  toward  1531  as  its  date  of  publication. 
On  Nov.  27,  1530,  Chapuys  writes  to  Charles  V,  "The  Dean  of 
the  Chapel,  in  the  King's  behalf,  has  presented  eight  instruments 
to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  respecting  the  divorce;  two 
from  Paris,  the  others  from  Toulouse,  Orleans,  Bruges,  Bologna, 
Padua,  and  Pavia.  They  are  Ukely  to  publish  these  documents, 
as  they  have  more  influence  than  any  book."  *  In  a  later  letter 
to  Charles,  June  6, 1531,  he  speaks  of  a  book  in  the  King's  behalf  as 
"lately  printed."  ^  Ortiz,  writing  to  Charles,  June  24,  1531,  men- 
tions a  "book  in  favour  of  the  King."  «  The  date  of  the  CensuraCf 
then,  being  settled,  we  may  attack  the  problem  of  its  authorship. 
Harpsfield  says  that  the  authors  were  "the  two  archbishops  of  the 
reahn  besides  divers  bishops  and  many  notable  lawyers  and  di- 
vines." '  Strype  agrees  with  this  in  substance,  saying  that  "an 
abundance  of  learned  men  had  now  employed  their  pens  in  this 
argument  to  the  number  of  above  an  hundred,  whereof  Dr.  Cran- 

^  See  Harpsfield's  Pretended  Divorce,  p.  309. 

2  On  fols.  A3,  A4;  C4,  14,  Q4. 

3  Strype,  Ecclesiastical  Memorials,  I,  216. 

*  State  Papers,  IV,  6738.  In  the  same  letter,  Chapuys  states  that  a 
book  is  "being  printed"  in  favor  of  the  King.  I  cannot  identify  this 
work. 

6  Ibid.,  V,  278. 
«  Ibid.,  V,  309. 

7  Harpsfield,  p.  172. 


.^. 


216  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

mer  was  one."  ^  Burnet  says  that  "some  learned  men  were 
appointed,"  who  compiled  the  book  from  all  that  had  been  previ- 
ously written.*  Two  writers  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography 
have  comphcated  matters  further  by  identifying  this  book  (with- 
out giving  any  evidence  for  so  doing)  with  the  one  mentioned  by 
Stokesley  in  a  letter  to  Cromwell  dated  1535.'  Speaking  of  his 
opinion  of  the  divorce,  Stokesley  says  that  it  was  expressed  "in 
the  King's  book  that  Mr.  'Ampner'  [Foxe],  Dr  Nicolas,  and  I 
made  before  going  over  sea  in  embassy  and  was  afterwards  trans- 
lated into  EngUsh,  with  additions  and  changes,  by  my  lord  of 
Canterbury."  *  Since  this  journey  over  sea  was  undertaken 
towards  the  end  of  1529,  it  is  not  possible  that  the  book  mentioned 
in  this  letter  is  the  Censurae,  although  it  may  readily  have  been 
one  of  those  worked  over  by  the  authors  of  the  later  volume.  My 
own  conclusion  is  that  it  was  composed,  as  the  older  biographers 
say,  by  many  hands,  and  was  probably  of  gradual  growth;  that  it 
may  possibly  have  been  set  up  tentatively  as  early  as  April,  1530, 
the  references  to  the  universities  being  introduced  later,  but  that 
it  certainly  did  not  appear  in  print  until  April,  1531.  The  title  is 
very  misleading,  for  except  for  the  few  references  en  passant  already 
mentioned,  the  universities  and  their  views  are  totally  ignored. 
However,  the  argument  thrashes  over  the  three  points  of  the  con- 
troversy, especially  the  Levitical  law,  in  every  conceivable  aspect, 
and  gives  at  length  the  opinions  of  councils,  popes,  saints,  school- 
masters, and  others.  The  Censurae  was  translated  in  November, 
1531,''  under  the  title  Determinations  of  the  moste  famous  and  moste 
excellent  universities  of  all  Fraunce  and  Italy,  etc.  The  translation 
ampHfies  the  original  slightly. «     The  sentence,  "The  King  has 

1  Strype,  Ecc.  Mem.,  I,  217. 

2  Burnet,  Reformation,  I,  166. 

»  See  article  on  Stokesley  by  A.  F.  Pollard  and  on  Nicholas  de  Burgo 
by  A.  G.  Little. 

4  State  Papers,  VIII,  1054. 

^  Ames,  Typog.  Antiq.,  I,  418,  gives  Nov.  7, 1530.  The  year  given  is 
conjecture  only,  as  it  does  not  appear  in  the  title  or  colophon.  One  of 
the  British  Museum  copies  is  identical  with  that  described  by  Ames, 
but  the  other  has  the  addition  of  the  year  1531  in  the  colophon. 

"  The  slight  amplifications  do  not  meet  the  expression  "additions 


APPENDIX  A  217 

printed  his  book  in  English  and  scattered  it  all  over  the  kingdom," 
in  a  letter  of  Nov.  25, 1531,  from  Chapuys  to  Charles,^  refers  doubt- 
less to  this  book.  Again,  in  a  letter  of  Jan.  22,  1532,  Chapuys 
speaks  of  "the  King's  book"  and  mentions  Sir  Thomas  Elyot  as 
one  of  the  translator s.^ 

As  soon  as  the  Censurae  appeared,  Fisher  seems  to  have  set 
about  to  answer  it.  Agrippa  writes  to  Chapuys  on  July  21,  1531, 
"Fisher's  book  is  good."  ^  This  refers  probably  to  the  first  part 
of  the  reply.  On  Aug.  22,  1531,  Ortiz  writes  to  Charles,  "May 
has  ordered  me  to  read  the  bishop  of  Rochester's  apology  which 
has  just  been  sent  me  from  England,  in  which  he  answers  two 
chapters  of  the  book  composed  in  favour  of  the  King."  *  On  Oct. 
24,  he  writes  to  Chapuys  for  "the  rest  of  Fisher's  apology."  ^ 
Chapuys  writes  to  Charles  on  Oct.  1,  1531,  "The  bishop  of  Roches- 
ter has  finished  his  answer  to  the  book  printed  by  the  King."  • 
Following  this  letter  in  the  State  Papers,  is  inserted  a  notice  of 
manuscript  in  the  Record  Ofl&ce,  under  the  caption  "Bishop  Fisher, 
His  book  on  the  Divorce,  replying  to  the  arguments  of  those  who 
sought  to  prove  the  invahdity  of  the  King's  marriage."  Although 
I  must  confess  to  not  having  read  through  the  198  foho  pages  of 
crabbedly  written  Latin  which  compose  this  manuscript,  I  am  con- 

and  changes"  in  Stokesley's  letter,  above  referred  to,  thus  giving  fur- 
ther evidence  that  the  writers  in  the  D.N.B.  have  made  a  mistake. 

1  State  Papers,  V,  546. 

2  Ibid.,  V,  737.  Not  a  Httle  confusion  has  arisen  among  bibUophiles 
through  a  failure  to  realize  that  there  were  several  such  sets  of  articles, 
similar  in  content,  but  actually  quite  distinct.  The  one  Pocock  fell 
foul  of  is  the  Latin  MS.  Vesp.  B5  (Brit.  Mus.),  entitled  Articuli  duo- 
dedm,  quibus  plane  admodum  demonstrabat,  divortium  .  .  .  necessario 
esse  faciendum,  which  consists  of  twelve  propositions,  each  fully  worked 
out.  Another  set,  which  got  into  print,  is  bound  with  one  of  the  British 
Museum  copies  of  the  Glasse  of  the  Truthe,  and  bears  the  title,  Articles 
devised  by  the  consent  of  the  King's  council,  etc.  This  is  composed  of 
eight  short  articles  in  Enghsh. 

8  Ibid.,  V,  app.  13. 

*  Ibid.,  V,  378. 

6  Ibid.,  V,  492. 

»  Ibid.,  V,  460. 


218  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

fident  that  it  is  not  the  book  in  question.*  Harpsfield,  in  his 
Pretended  Divorce,  gives  the  substance  of  Fisher's  reply  to  the 
Censurae  (which  I  have  nowhere  found  dignified  with  a  title), 
compiled  from  the  author's  original  Latin.'  It  is  not  possible  to 
tell  whether  or  not  Harpsfield  abbreviated  Fisher's  original  in  trans- 
lating it;  as  given,  it  occupies  ahnost  100  quarto  pages.  Harps- 
field states  that  he  has  never  seen  a  printed  copy  of  this  book  and 
doubts  if  it  was  ever  published.  In  the  form  given  it  in  the  trans- 
lation, it  is  a  close  and  detailed  refutation,  point  by  point,  of  the 
Censurae,  written  in  a  straightforward  and  common-sense  manner 
that  is  much  more  convincing  than  the  ponderous  scholasticism 
of  its  opponent. 

The  cause  for  the  Queen  was  further  strengthened  at  this  point 
by  a  book  from  Reginald  Pole,  which  is  said  to  have  so  affected  the 
King  that  he  almost  gave  up  further  effort  for  the  divorce.  Strype 
says  that  it  "was  penned  about  the  year  1530."  ^  He  is  mistaken 
here.  The  book  was  the  result  of  a  conference  which  Pole  had  with 
the  King  in  the  late  spring  of  1531.  Moreover,  Cranmer's  letter 
to  the  Earl  of  Wiltshire  describing  the  book  is  dated  June  13,  1531. 
Tanner  gives  its  title  as  De  non  dissolvendo  connvhio  regis  Henr. 
VIII  et  Catherinae.*  Strype  says,  "the  book,  though  the  argu- 
ment of  it  chiefly  depended  on  divinity,  proceeded  more  on  poUtical 
principles  than  divine."  *  Cranmer,  in  the  letter  just  mentioned, 
says  that  "it  was  writ  with  that  eloquence  that  if  it  were  set  forth 
and  knowne  to  the  commen  people,  I  suppose  yt  were  not  possible 
to  persuade  them  to  the  contrary."  «    The  book  was  in  manuscript 

1  This  MS.  is  in  two  handwritings.  The  first  runs  to  thirty  folios. 
The  second  writer  wrote  only  in  a  narrow  column  down  one  side  of  the 
page,  so  that  his  part  would  not  make  more  than  thirty-five  full  folios. 
The  MS.  is  imperfect,  lacking  both  beginning  and  ending.  I  do  not 
know  why  it  is  ascribed  to  Fisher. 

2  Harpsfield,  op.  dt.,  Part  I. 
^  Strype,  Cranmer,  I,  9. 

4  Tanner,  p.  603. 
^  Strype,  ibid. 

«  Strype,  ibid.,  II,  No.  1;  also  State  Papers,  V,  app.  10.  This  letter 
gives  a  pretty  full  account  of  the  contents  of  the  book. 


APPENDIX  A  219 

only,  probably  in  Latin,  and  was  evidently  shown  only  to  a  very 
few.  Pole  wrote  the  King's  council  in  1537  that  he  had  not  yet 
had  it  printed,  on  account  of  his  love  for  his  Majesty,^  and  doubt- 
less it  never  was,  although  the  substance  of  it  was  more  than 
likely  incorporated  in  his  Pro  Ecdesiasticae  Unitatis  Defensione.^ 

Almost  simultaneously  with  Pole's  treatise,  there  was  pubhshed 
in  English  a  book  entitled  A  Glasse  of  the  TriUhe,  in  the  form  of  a 
dialogue,  the  only  work  of  a  popular  nature  in  the  whole  contro- 
versy. Most  of  the  bibUophiles  who  have  noticed  this  book  are 
inclined  to  date  it  1532  —  Pocock  says  "as  early  as  September, 
1532"'  —  because  it  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  of  Sept.  17,  1532,  and 
because,  according  to  Pocock,  it  was  answered  by  a  Latin  work 
pubhshed  at  Luneburg  in  1533.  All  are  wrong  here.  The  correct 
date  is  1531,  as  the  book  is  mentioned  as  "lately  printed"  in  a 
letter  from  Chapuys  to  Charles,  dated  June  24,  1531.  "The 
English,"  he  says,  "have  lately  printed  a  httle  dialogue  ...  a 
thing  so  feeble  and  cold  that  it  is  a  disgrace  to  them."  ^  Pocock  is 
also  wrong  on  two  points  in  regard  to  Vives'  book,  to  which  his 
vague  reference  evidently  applies.  It  was  in  fact  an  answer  to  the 
Censurae  and  was  published  at  Luneburg  in  1532.  The  author- 
ship of  the  Glasse  is  still  a  matter  of  doubt,  but  in  all  probability 
it  was  written  by  the  King's  advisers,  perhaps  with  his  help. 
Latin  and  French  translations  were  made  at  his  command  in  1532, 
and  a  German  one  was  projected  but  seems  to  have  failed.  Nicholas 
Hawkins  was  appointed  to  push  the  distribution  of  the  book  on  the 
continent,  and  Sir  Richard  Croke  performed  a  similar  mission  at 
home.  A  pretense  was  maintained  that  the  King  was  the  author, 
but  I  doubt  very  much  if  he  had  more  than  a  hand  in  it,  at  the 
most.  Croke,  writing  from  Oxford  on  Sept.  23,  1532,  says  that  he 
has  not  had  much  success  in  persuading  the  people  of  the  royal 
authorship  but  that  the  book  itseK  had  done  more  than  all  previ- 
ous ones  in  winning  them  over  to  the  Bang's  side.^    Hawkins,  in 

1  State  Papers,  XII,  444. 

2  See  below,  p.  222-223. 

3  Pocock,  Records,  I,  xxi. 

4  State  Papers,  V,  308. 
^  Ibid.,  V,  1338. 


220  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

a  letter  to  Henry,  calls  the  book  "your  Highness  dialogue,"  but 
in  speaking  of  certain  quotations  which  had  been  omitted  from 
the  translation,  he  refers  the  King  to  "Master  Cranmer  or  Master 
Gudric  [Goodrich]  to  write  them  in,  word  for  word,  as  they  be 
in  the  originals."  ^ 

This  work  is  entirely  different  from  any  other  in  the  controversy, 
since  it  not  only  is  written  for  the  man  in  the  street  rather  than 
for  the  scholar  or  the  court,  but  also  makes  a  show  of  some  Hterary 
pretentions.  The  preface  describes  it  as  a  "clere  glasse  wherein 
the  whiche  ye  shall  see  .  .  .  the  playne  truthe  of  our  mooste  noble 
and  lovinge  princes  cause,  which  by  unmete  and  unkynde  handlynge 
hath  hytherto  had  so  overlonge  a  staye";  but  the  intelligent  reader 
will  be  more  likely  to  agree  with  Chapuys  that  it  is  a  sorry  affair. 
The  argument,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  is  entirely  on  the  side  of  the 
King;  and  for  this  reason,  the  dialogue  can  hardly  be  said  to  be 
spirited,  since  each  of  the  disputants  speaks  only  to  have  his  ideas 
confirmed  by  the  hstener,  who  plays  the  part  of  Greek  chorus  with 
fervor  and  despatch.  Harpsfield  judges  the  book  pretty  fairly  in 
saying,  "You  shall  find  them  [the  arguments]  none  other  in  sub- 
stance but  such  as  he  took  out  of  the  book  that  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester  hath  already  confuted.''  .  .  .  And  aU  this  is  conveyed 
in  a  dialogue  between  a  sorry  doting  divine  and  a  sorry  lewd  lawyer, 
framing  out  of  their  own  heads  new  divinity  and  new  laws  eccle- 
siastical." 3  Still,  one  can  readily  understand  how  the  ignorant 
pubhc  might  have  been  influenced  by  the  book,  as  Croke  says 
they  were. 

Vives'  reply  to  the  Censurae,  entitled  Non  esse  .  .  .  prohibitum, 
1  n  quin  Summus  Pontifex  dispensare  possit,  ut  frater  siue  liberis  fra- 
J^  tris  uxorem  ligitimo  matrimonio  sibi  possit  adiungere,  etc.,  and  pub- 
lished at  Luneburg  in  September,  1532,  presents  no  difficulties. 
Some  vague  references  in  letters  of  1531  ^  inform  us  that  Vives 
had  expressed  himself  before  that  year  on  the  subject,  but  these 
treatises  were  evidently  not  printed  and  were  probably  very  brief. 

1  State  Papers,  V,  1660. 

*  That  is,  those  of  the  Censurae. 
8  Harpsfield,  p.  170. 

*  State  Papers,  V,  46  and  app.  13  and  14. 


APPENDIX  A  221 

There  is  slight  evidence  that  Vives  committed  some  of  his  ideas  to 
paper  as  early  as  1527.^  The  Non  esse  prohibitum  consists  of  162 
pages  of  the  usual  scholastic  a  priori  argument.  The  date  is  given 
on  the  title  page. 

This  book  seems  to  be  the  last  that  appeared  in  print  before 
the  actual  divorce  took  place.  Wakefield,  however,  presented 
another  book  on  the  subject,  the  dating  of  which  is  the  most  diffi- 
cult problem  we  have  yet  encountered.  It  is  necessary  to  consider 
first  the  date  of  his  earlier  Kotser  Codicis.  I  have  already  said 
that  Pocock  has  overthrown  the  date  first  set  for  it,  but  he  offers 
none  of  his  own  except  in  showing  that  its  publication  must  have 
been  later  than  Dec.  8,  1529.^  In  a  letter  printed  with  the  Kotser 
from  Wakefield  to  Fisher,  Stokesley  is  spoken  of  as  ''Londoni- 
nensis  iam  episcopus."  As  Stokesley  was  not  made  Bishop  of 
London  until  Nov.  27,  1530,  we  are  able  to  shove  the  date  of 
pubhcation  along  one  year  more.  The  reference  on  the  first  page 
of  the  treatise  itself  to  "a  book  thought  to  be  by  Vives  or  Agrippa" 
must  apply  to  Vives'  book  above  mentioned,  which  did  not  bear 
any  name  on  its  title  page.  As  this  book  was  not  published  until 
September,  1532,  the  Kotser  cannot  be  dated  earher  than  this.^ 
Wakefield's  second  book.  Syntagma  de  Hebraeorum  codicum  incor- 
ruptione,  etc.,  compHcates  matters  still  more.  This  book  was 
printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  and  therefore  before  1535,  since 
Worde's  will  was  proved  on  January  19  of  that  year.  The  sen- 
tence on  the  verso  of  the  first  leaf,  Primt^m  tamen  quaestionem  per 
Johannem  Fissherium  .  .  .  propositam  atque  responsionem  quam  illi 
codici  meo  adhibui  annos  antehac  fere  septem  in  medium  his  asseram, 
gives  us  the  information  that  the  Kotser  was  written  seven  years 
previously.  I  have  already  demonstrated  that  the  Kotser  could  not 
possibly  have  been  pubhshed  before  1530,  and  probably  not  before 
1532  (unless,  of  course,  the  extant  copies  are  not  first  editions, 

^  See  article  on  Vives  in  D.N.B. 

2  See  above,  p.  212. 

'  The  British  Museum  catalogue  gives  "1532?".  Ames,  Typog. 
Antiq.,  I,  417,  gives  1530,  but  this  is  evidently  conjecture  only.  The 
references  in  the  Kotser  to  Abel's  book  (see  above,  p.  212)  might  be 
useful  if  we  could  get  more  definite  information  about  Abel. 


222  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

which  is  very  unlikely). ^  Furthermore,  in  the  undated  letter 
from  Wakefield  to  Fisher,  Wakefield  says  that  Foxe  came  to  con- 
sult him  ''nomine  Regis"  some  seven  years  earher  about  the  mar- 
riage of  a  man  with  his  brother's  widow.  Seven  years  previous 
to  either  1530  or  1532  would  be  before  Henry  had  thought  of  a 
divorce  and  before  Foxe  was  connected  with  the  court.  The  only 
way  out  of  this  difficulty  is  to  suppose  that  the  Kotser  was  written 
in  the  summer  of  1529  (being  the  book  referred  to  by  Wakefield 
in  his  letter  of  that  date  2),  but  was  not  pubhshed  until  seven  years 
later,  when  the  references  to  Vives  and  Abel  and  the  letters  men- 
tioned were  added,  and  that  the  reference  in  the  Syntagma  is  to  it 
in  its  manuscript  and  not  its  printed  form.  The  Syntagma  itself, 
written  "annos  fere  septem"  later  than  the  Kotser,  would  thus 
seem  to  have  been  published  in  1536  also.  But  Worde,  the  printer, 
was  dead  by  that  time.  The  only  possible  solution  of  this  second 
difficulty  is  to  suppose  that  Wakefield  spoke  inaccurately  in  say- 
ing "annos  fere  septem,"  for  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  think  the 
Kotser  written  before  1529,  as  I  have  already  shown.  The  Syn- 
tagma is  a  small  Latin  pamphlet  of  only  fifty-six  pages.  It  was 
projected  in  1524  as  a  part  of  the  author's  earher  work,  Oratio  de 
lavdilms  et  vtilitate  tuum  linguarum  Arabicae,  Chaldicae  et  Hebrae- 
icae,  etc.,  but  the  controversy  over  the  royal  divorce  altered  alto- 
gether the  nature  of  its  intended  content."  Harpsfield  gives  an 
outUne  of  it  in  his  Pretended  Divorce,  where  he  attempts  to  refute 
its  arguments. 

When  Henry  repudiated  the  Pope  as  head  of  the  church,  he 
appealed  to  Pole,  then  in  Italy,  for  his  opinion  on  the  whole  situa- 
tion. In  the  book  with  which  Pole  rephed,  Reginaldi  Poli  .  .  .  ad 
Henricu  octavum  .  .  .  pro  ecclesiasticae  unitatis  defensione  libri 
quatuor,  he  re-expressed  his  opinion  upon  the  King's  divorce, 
among  other  things  pointing  out  that  by  marrying  Anne  he  was 

1  There  is  no  record  of  there  having  been  a  second  edition,  nor  is 
there  any  reason  for  supposing  that  a  book  of  so  Uttle  importance 
would  have  appeared  more  than  once. 

2  See  above,  p.  208. 

3  See  Maitland,  Early  Printed  Books  in  the  Lambeth  Library,  Nos. 
509  and  510,  and  Note  GG. 


APPENDIX  A  223 

violating  the  very  law  which  he  had  established  in  order  to  divorce 
Catherine.!  Tanner  dates  the  book  1536;  the  catalogue  of  the 
British  Museum  dates  its  copy  "[1538],"  which  may  be  a  second 
edition.'  Wood  describes  the  book  as  one  "wherein  he  answers 
many  things  that  Samson  had  wrote  to  please  the  king;  presseth 
the  king  earnestly  to  return  to  the  obedience  of  Rome;  exciteth  the 
emperor  to  revenge  the  injury  done  unto  his  aunt,  (the  divorced 
queen)  and  many  other  things."  ^  On  the  question  of  the  divorce, 
the  writer  certainly  does  not  spare  his  sovereign.  * 

Besides  the  books  discussed  above,  Wood  mentions  John  Holy- 
man's  Defensio  Matrimonii  Reginae  Catherinae  Cum  Rege  Henrico 
Octavo  and  Bishop  TunstalPs  Treatise  in  Defense  of  the  Marriage 
of  Queen  Katherine  with  Henry  8;  but  on  these  books  I  am  unable  to 
find  any  information  whatever. 

A  very  few  books  were  put  out  on  the  subject  of  the  divorce  after 
the  immediate  excitement  had  died  down.  The  only  one  of  these 
worth  mentioning  here  is  Harpsfield's  Pretended  Divorce  between 
Henry  VIII  and  Queen  Catherine,  which  has  been  referred  to  many 
times  already.  It  was  written  in  Mary's  reign,  but  more  accurate 
dating  seems  impossible.''  It  existed  in  manuscripts  only,  four  of 
which  are  still  extant,  until  Pocock  printed  it  in  1878.  This  is  the 
longest  and  most  comprehensive  work  of  all  on  the  subject. 
Harpsfield  explains  that  his  purpose  in  writing  it  was  to  justify 
Sir  Thomas  More  for  refusing  to  take  the  oath  ratifying  the  whole 

*  See  above,  p.  207,  n.  1.  This  part  of  Pole's  treatise  is  translated  by 
Bridgett,  Blessed  John  Fisher,  p.  148,  n. 

2  It  seems  more  likely,  however,  that  Tanner  is  mistaken  and  that 
the  two  books  are  identical,  1538  being  the  correct  date.  The  work  was 
finished  by  May,  1536  (according  to  D.N.B.),  but  in  1537  Pole  wrote 
the  King's  council  that  his  love  for  Henry  had  caused  him  to  withhold 
his  first  book  on  the  divorce  from  publication.  This  does  not  seem 
compatible  with  the  sentiments  expressed  in  the  Pro  Ecclesiastical 
nor  with  the  fact  that  immediately  upon  the  appearance  of  the  latter, 
the  King  divested  Pole  of  all  his  dignities  in  England. 

»  Wood,  I,  285. 

*  The  divorce  is  discussed  in  Lib.  Ill,  especially  f .  Lxxv  ff. 

8  Pocock  makes  no  apparent  attempt  to  date  accurately  the  writing 
of  the  book. 


224  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

course  of  the  Eang's  actions;  and  this  he  does  by  showing  that 
Henry  had  been  in  the  wrong  throughout.  The  treatise  is  divided 
into  three  parts,  as  follows:  (1)  reasons  to  justify  the  marriage  of 
Henry  and  Catherine,  in  the  form  of  a  reproduction  of  Fisher's 
reply  to  the  Censurae;  (2)  refutation  of  four  other  important  books 
on  the  subject  (that  of  Egidius  Bellamera,  long  before  this  time; 
that  of  Marcus  Mantua,  a  contemporary  lawyer  of  Padua;  the 
Syntagma  of  Wakefield;  and  the  Glasse  of  the  Truthe),  together 
with  a  history  of  the  divorce;  (3)  a  discussion  of  the  parhamentary 
acts  after  the  divorce  and  an  account  of  Henry's  later  political  and 
matrimonial  difficulties.  This  book  is  of  extreme  value  for  the 
light  it  throws  on  the  history  of  the  divorce,  on  the  books  which 
it  reviews,  and  on  conditions  of  matrimony  and  divorce  at  the 
time  of  writing. 


APPENDIX  B 

THE  DATE  AND  OCCASION  OF  MILTON'S  FIRST 
DIVORCE  TRACT 

Edward  Philips,  Milton's  nephew,  is  responsible  for  th&  state- 
ment that  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce  was  conceived 
about  Michehnas  (Sept.  29),  1643.  This  approximate  date  was 
accepted  until  Masson  pointed  out  that  Thomason,  the  collector 
of  manuscripts  at  the  British  Museum,  had  added  Ay^.  1  to  the 
year  1643  on  the  title  page  of  the  Museum  copy.  Thomason  was 
in  the  habit  of  affixing  dates  to  the  pamphlets  he  acquired;  and 
as  these  seem  clearly  to  refer  to  his  acquisition  of  the  pamphlets 
rather  than  to  their  pubhcation,  we  may  take  them  as  the  latest 
possible  times  for  the  appearance  of  tracts  otherwise  undated. 
A  comparison  of  Thomason's  dates  for  the  year  of  1643  and  there- 
abouts with  those  in  the  Stationers'  Register,  shows  that  the  former 
vary  from  one  day  to  several  months  later  than  those  of  registration. 
This  being  the  case,  if  we  accept  Thomason's  date  at  all,  we  may 
say  that  Milton's  tract  appeared  certainly  as  early  as  some  time 
in  July. 

Against  the  acceptance  of  this  date,  stands  the  statement  of 
PhiHps  that  Milton  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  subject  of  divorce 
because  the  delay  of  his  wife  in  returning  from  her  visit  to  her 
parents  "so  incensed  our  author  that  he  thought  it  would  be  dis- 
honourable ever  to  receive  her  again  after  such  a  repulse,  so  he 
forthwith  prepared  to  fortify  himself  with  arguments  for  such  a 
resolution,  and  accordingly  wrote  two  treatises,  by  which  he  under- 
took to  maintain  that  it  was  against  reason  and  the  enjoinment 
of  it  not  provable  by  Scripture  for  any  married  couple  disagreeable 
in  humour  and  temper  or  having  an  aversion  to  each  [other]  to 
be  forced  to  be  yoked  together  all  their  lives."  PhiUps  continues, 
"The  first  was  his  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce,  of  which 
there  was  printed  a  second  edition  with  some  additions.     The 

225 


226  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

other  in  prosecution  of  the  first  was  called  Tetrachordon.  Then 
better  to  confirm  his  own  opinion  by  the  attestation  of  others,  he 
set  out  a  piece  called  The  Judgment  of  Martin  Bucer.  .  .  .  Lastly 
he  wrote  an  answer  to  a  pragmatical  clerk  ...  his  Colasteron."  ^ 

Before  Masson  pointed  out  that  Phihps  was  probably  wrong 
in  stating  that  the  first  tract  was  not  started  until  Sept.  29,  biog- 
raphers, in  attempting  to  explain  its  cause,  imagined  that  Milton 
must  have  become  disgusted  with  his  young  wife  and  have  written 
the  tract  as  a  result  of  domestic  unhappiness.  Since  Masson's 
discovery,  they  have  been  unable  to  repudiate  Thomason's  date 
and  yet  unwilling  to  give  up  their  ingeniously  built  theories  on 
the  subject.  The  result  in  biographies  of  Milton,  including  Mas- 
son's  own,  has  been  that  the  writer  has  presented  both  conflicting 
accounts,  either  saying  naively,  as  Masson  does,  that  he  doesn't 
know  what  on  earth  to  do  about  it,  or  else,  like  Pattison,  suppos- 
ing some  offense  on  Mary's  part  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  start 
her  husband  writing  tracts  during  his  honeymoon.^ 

In  attempting  to  overthrow  the  whole  structure  of  this  specimen 
of  scholarly  architecture,  I  shall  start  with  the  top  story  first,  that 
is,  the  contribution  of  the  late  biographers.    This  obviously  rests 

1  Philips,  Life  of  Milton,  in  Godwin's  Lives  of  E.  and  J.  Philips, 
p.  365  ff.  Godwin  has  not  helped  matters  by  putting  the  wrong  years 
in  the  margin  of  his  reprint.    These  are  not  present  in  the  original. 

*  Masson  suggests  timidly  as  a  possible  way  out  that  Philips'  date 
of  Milton's  marriage  may  be  considerably  too  late,  but  hastily  shies 
off  from  the  results  of  such  a  supposition.  Pattison,  in  casting  about 
for  some  offense  to  saddle  upon  Mary,  suggests  that  perhaps  she 
refused  Milton  the  marriage  right.  Both  seem  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
Philips'  statement  is  that  the  tract  was  first  conceived  as  a  result  of 
Mary's  protracted  visit  at  Michelmastide,  so  that  neither  explanation 
clears  up  the  case  at  all.  To  consider  Philips  wrong  in  the  matter  of 
the  tract's  date  in  order  to  consider  him  right  in  the  matter  of  its 
cause,  or  vice  versa,  is  no  solution  of  the  problem,  especially  as  the 
critics  cannot  agree  on  which  to  throw  overboard.  Pattison's  sugges- 
tion simply  shows  his  ignorance  of  existing  divorce  practices,  for  the 
condition  of  affairs  he  suggests  would  have  rendered  a  divorce  even 
more  readily  obtainable  by  Milton  than  it  already  was. 


APPENDIX   B  227 

on  two  things,  the  evidence  of  the  tract  itself,  as  a  foundation, 
and  Philips'  statement  as  an  intervening  story. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  Mary's  apparent  desertion  of  her 
husband  suggests  that  there  was  some  trouble  between  them, 
although  her  delay  in  returning  from  her  visit  might  have  orig- 
inally been  caused  by  the  entreaties  of  her  friends  and  relatives 
alone;  but  if  there  was  any  such  dissatisfaction  or  contrariety  of 
mind,  the  facts  involved  show  that  it  was  felt  by  her  rather  than 
by  him,  since  he  made  repeated  efforts  to  hasten  her  return.  More- 
over, the  muck-rakers  who  in  later  controversies  with  him  at- 
tempted to  assail  his  character,  and  even  dug  up  his  college  career 
to  support  their  assertions,  were  unable  to  find  a  single  fact  of 
his  domestic  Hfe  that  might  be  interpreted  to  his  disadvantage. 
It  should  be  carefully  noted  also  that  not  a  word  appears  in  the 
early  biographies  —  those  of  Phihps,  Toland,  Aubrey,  and  Wood  — 
to  the  effect  that  he  had  any  criticism  to  make  upon  his  wife's 
character  or  fitness  of  disposition.  This  is  all  later  invention. 
Furthermore,  it  must  be  pretty  clear  from  my  discussion  of  the 
agitation  and  writing  on  the  subject  of  divorce  that  there  is  no 
need  of  looking  into  a  man's  private  life  in  order  to  explain  why 
he  should  have  turned  his  thoughts  to  this  problem,  especially 
when  he  expresses  other  reasons  for  his  action,  as  Milton  does. 
Thus  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline  needs  no  personal  justification  from 
the  author's  own  life.  Furthermore,  Milton's  ideas  on  the  subject 
remained  the  same  after  he  was  happily  reunited  with  his  wife. 

The  above  facts  remove  both  the  supposed  evidence  of  the 
first  tract  in  favor  of  the  traditional  cause  of  its  writing  and  also 
the  argument  drawn  from  it  for  the  acceptance  of  Phihps'  date. 
Let  us  now  consider  the  statement  of  Philips  himself,  the  second 
story  of  our  scholarly  structure.  As  to  the  cause  of  the  tract, 
Phihps'  theory  —  for  it  certainly  was  theory  —  that  it  was  written 
in  order  to  establish  grounds  whereby  Milton  might  obtain  a 
divorce,  in  the  light  of  my  discussion  of  divorce  legislation  and 
practice  at  the  time,  is  ridiculous  on  the  face  of  it.  Milton  had 
ample  cause  for  divorce,  according  to  the  teaching  and  practice 
of  his  own  church,  on  the  ground  of  desertion,  in  case  his  wife 
failed  to  return.    We  have  incontrovertible  evidence,  also,  that  he 


228  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   KELATIONS 

was  well  aware  of  the  fact,  as  I  have  already  shown.  ^  A  further 
proof  of  this,  if  we  can  beheve  Philips  at  all,  Hes  in  the  fact  that 
a  marriage  between  Milton  and  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Davis  was 
"more  than  probably  thought  to  be  in  agitation"  at  the  time  of 
Mary's  delayed  return.* 

To  summarize,  my  position  stands  thus:  (1)  there  was  ample 
cause  for  Milton  to  write  a  tract  on  divorce  whatever  his  own 
married  Ufe  may  have  been;  (2)  by  the  existing  practices  of  the 
Puritan  churches,  Milton  had  recognized  grounds  for  divorce,  and 
knew  it,  if  his  wife  failed  to  return  to  him;  (3)  the  only  reasons 
for  Philips'  behef  that  the  tract  was  planned  about  Michelmas 
and  for  our  acceptance  of  his  statement  to  that  effect,  are  thus 
removed;  (4)  the  evidence,  then,  naturally  favors  Thomason's 
testimony,  given  in  1643,  as  against  Philips',  given  in  1694.  The 
points  in  the  argument  against  me  represent  at  best  a  case  of 
"together  we  stand,  divided  we  fall."  I  think  I  have  shaken  all 
of  them  pretty  severely;  and  if  I  can  overthrow  one  completely 
the  others  must  go  by  the  board  in  consequence.  The  most  im- 
portant one,  without  which  the  others  become  absolutely  unsup- 
ported, is  the  date  given  by  PhiUps  for  the  conception  of  the 
tract.  On  this  point,  I  submit  the  following  evidence  in  addition 
to  that  given  by  Thomason: 

(1)  Philips  is  absolutely  untrustworthy.  He  seldom  makes  a 
definite  statement,  but  in  several  places  where  he  does,  he  is  con- 
siderably out  of  the  way,  for  example,  in  the  dates  of  Milton's 
birth,  death,  his  entrance  in  Cambridge,  the  publication  of  Para- 
dise Lost,  and  some  minor  events.^    That  he  was  very  uncertain 

1  Se3  above,  p.  86. 

2  The  fact,  if  it  be  a  fact,  that  Milton  contemplated  a  second  mar- 
riage at  this  time,  has  appeared  to  some  to  argue  that  his  first  was 
unhappy.  This  reasoning  is  ingenious  but  hardly  convincing.  A  man 
deserted  by  his  wife  would  be  much  more  hkely  to  seek  another  if  his 
first  venture  at  the  altar  had  been  happy;  nor,  if  it  had  been  unhappy, 
would  he  rush  quite  so  precipitously  into  marriage  again  as  Philips 
asserts  Milton  was  ready  to  do. 

'  These  he  gives  as  occurring  in  1606,  in  1673,  at  the  age  of  fifteen, 
and  in  1666,  respectively.     The  correct  facts  are:  Milton  was  born  Dec. 


APPENDIX  B  229 

of  the  facts  connected  with  the  divorce  tracts,  is  shown  by  his 
saying  that  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline  and  the  Tetrachordon  were 
planned  together  as  the  result  of  his  wife's  behavior  and  were 
followed  by  the  Judgement  of  Martin  Bvcer,  whereas  we  know  that 
the  Tetrachordon  resulted  from  the  criticisms  on  the  first  tract,^ 
that  it  did  not  appear  until  1645,  and  that  it  was  preceded  by  the 
Martin  Bucer  tract. 

(2)  The  second  edition  of  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline  is  dated  by 
Thomason,  Feb.  2,  1643-4.  As  shown  above,  this  date  is  prob- 
ably some  time  later  than  the  tract's  actual  appearance,  but  let 
us  accept  it  nevertheless  as  the  day  of  publication.  The  second 
edition  was  an  entire  reworking  of  the  first,  increasing  it  more 
than  one-third  of  its  original  length,  and  introducing  new  authori- 
ties, whose  works  required  considerable  study.  It  hardly  seems 
possible  that  the  tract  could  have  been  originally  conceived, 
planned,  written,  and  published,  the  subject  reinvestigated,  and 
the  first  edition  reworked  and  pubhshed  in  its  new  form,  all  in  the 
space  of  four  months  (Sept.  29  -  Feb.  2). 

(3)  Milton,  in  his  Colasteron  says,  "Whenas  the  Doctrine  and 
Discipline  had  now  a  whole  year  been  published  a  second  time 
.  .  .  this  idle  pamphlet  comes  reefing  forth  against  the  first  edi- 
tion only."  2  The  Answer,  to  which  Milton  refers  here,  is  recorded 
in  the  Stationers^  Register,  on  Oct.  31,  1644,  and  was  dated  by 
Thomason  Nov.  19,  1644.  If  Milton  is  speaking  accurately  in 
saying  "a  whole  year,"  it  is  evident  that  Thomason's  date  for  the 
second  edition  is  considerably  later  than  that  of  its  publication, 
as  many  of  his  dates  are.  The  effect  of  this  evidence  is  either  to 
shorten  down  the  time  between  the  original  conception  of  the 
tract  and  its  second  pubUcation  (already  too  short,  if  we  accept 
Phifips'  date)  or  else  to  show  that  it  was  started  before  Philips 
says. 

9,  1608;  died  Nov.  8,  1674;  entered  college  at  the  age  of  sixteen;  and 
pubhshed  Paradise  Lost  in  1667.  In  the  light  of  such  glaring  errors,  it 
seems  hardly  worth  while  to  consider  PhiUps'  statements  as  to  minor 
dates  worth  anything  at  all. 

1  So  Milton  says  himself.  Prose  WorkSf  II,  115-116. 

2  Milton,  II,  243. 


230  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

(4)  Milton,  in  his  Second  Defense,  says  clearly:   "When  the 
bishops  could  no  longer  resist  the  multitude  of  their  assailants,  I 
had  leisure  to  turn  my  thoughts  to  other  subjects;  to  the  pro- 
motion of  real  and  substantial  hberty.  .  .  .  When,  therefore,  I 
/      perceived   that  there  were  three  species   of   hberty  which  are 
i      essential  to  the  happiness  of  social  Hfe;   religious,  domestic,  and 
^   civil;  and  as  I  had  already  written  concerning  the  first,  and  the 
magistrates  were  strenuously  active  concerning  the  third,  I  deter- 
mined to  turn  my  attention  to  the  second,  or  domestic  species."  * 
The   overthrow  of   the  bishops,  both  in  their  controversy  with 
the  Smectymuuns  and  in  their  opposition  in  the  House  of  Lords 
to  the  new  church  government,  took  place  in  1642,^  before  Milton 
was  married. 

The  obvious  conclusions  from  the  whole  of  the  above  discus- 
sion are:  (1)  Phihps,  who  was  but  fifteen  years  old  at  the  time 
of  the  pubhcation  of  the  tract,  and  who  was  not  at  all  in  sympathy 
with  his  uncle's  principles,  was  simply  conjecturing  as  to  the  date 
and  occasion  of  it  when  he  wrote  his  biography  of  Milton  fifty-one 
years  later,  and  that  he  was  mistaken,  as  in  other  places,  on  both 
points.  (2)  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  was  planned  in  1642,  as 
Milton  clearly  states,  was  pubHshed  on  or  before  Aug.  1,  1643,  and 
had  no  connection  whatever  with  his  own  domestic  hfe.  (3)  The 
theories  as  to  Milton's  disgust  with  his  young  wife  and  his  dis- 
gruntled attitude  towards  the  marriage  state  (he  who  was  thrice 
married),  the  scenes  depicted  as  resulting  therefrom  (including, 
alas,  such  triumphs  of  the  imagination  as  Masson's  picture  of  the 
parting  of  husband  and  wife  and  his  account  of  the  excitement 
caused  in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons  by  the  scandal), 
and  finally  the  calumnies  cast  upon  this  unromantic  and  rather 
humdrum  couple,  might  well  be  omitted  from  future  biographies.' 

1  Milton,  VI,  405. 

2  See  above,  p.  85. 

'  To  save  some  one  else  imnecessary  labor,  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
state  that  I  have  carefully  run  down  the  following  clues  without  gain- 
ing any  further  information:  (1)  Palmer's  sermon.  The  Glasse  of 
God's  Providence,  Aug.  13,  1644,  referred  to  by  Milton,  Prose  Works, 
II,  113;  (2)  Grotius'  Annotationes  in  Libros  Evangeliorvm,  1641,  men- 
tioned by  Milton,  ibid.,  I,  345;   (3)  Prynne's  Qt^mes,  referred  to  by 


APPENDIX  B  231 

Milton,  ibid.,  II,  240;  (4)  Featley's  Dippers  dipt,  1644-5,  mentioned 
by  Milton,  ibid.,  II,  116  (John  Featley  is  mistaken  in  implying,  in  his  Dr. 
D.  Featley  revived,  pp.  64  and  70,  that  this  tract  preceded  The  Gentle 
Lash,  pub.  Jan.  2,  1643-4) ;  (5)  Howell's  letter,  mentioned  by  Masson, 
Life  of  Milton,  III,  62;  (6)  the  possible  reference  to  Milton's  divorce 
ideas  in  the  Annotations  of  the  Books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
(see  above,  pp.  93-94  and  n.  1). 


APPENDIX  C 

DIRECTIONS  FOR  MATRIMONY  FROM 
HARRINGTON'S  BOOK^ 

HOWE   MATRYMONY  IS  MADE  WITH  THE  CYRCUMSTAUCE  AND 
SOLEMPNYTE  AS  APPERTAYNETH  THERTO 

As  touchynge  the  seconde  partye  /  it  is  to  be  knowen  that 
man  and  woman  dothe  entre  this  holy  ordre  and  sacramente  of 
matrymony  by  expresse  and  free  consente  of  bothe  partyes/  that 
is  to  say:  when  both  the  man  and  the  woman  dothe  consente  bothe 
in  one  tyme  to  be  husbonde  and  wyfe/  and  that  consente  doo  shewe 
eyther  to  other  by  expresse  wordes  of  the  tyme  presente/  as  by 
these  wordes  or  other  lyke/  I  take  the  to  my  wyfe/  or  I  frome  this 
tyme  forwarde  wyll  haue  the  to  my  wyfe.  And  yf  the  woman 
also  incontynentely  expresse  the  same  or  other  lyke  wordes.  then 
there  is  contracte  matrymony  betwyxte  them.  .  .  .  But  and  they 
vse  wordes  of  the  tyme  to  come  As  yf  the  man  saye  thus/  I  shall 
take  the  to  my  wyfe.  And  the  woman  saye/  I  shall  take  the  to 
my  husbonde  or  other  lyke  wordes  of  tyme  to  come/  then  it  is  noo 
matrymony.  But  promyse  to  make  matrymony.  .  .  .  This  con- 
sent whiche  maketh  matrymony  ought  to  be  in  bothe  theyr  soules 
by  true  loue  so  yt  ether  shuld  consent  to  loue  other  aboue  all  ye 
creaturs  of  the  worlde.  It  shulde  also  be  in  theyr  bodyes  by  true 
observauce  and  kepynge  .  .  .  theyr  bodyes  to  other  clene  and 
pure  from  all  other  creatures.  It  shulde  also  be  in  theyr  temporall 
gooddes  by  a  due  comunyon  so  that  eyther  of  them  shuld  consent 
that  suche  goodes  as  they  haue  or  shall  haue  shall  be  comune 
betwyxte  them. 

Moreouer  this  consent  whiche  doth  make  matrymony  ought  to 
be  grotided  of  a  good  cause  and  intent/  yt  is  to  saye  those  yt  wyll 
entre  in  to  this  holy  ordre  .  .  .  must  doo  it  pryncypally  for  one 
of  thre  causes/  that  is  to  saye/  other  to  the  entente  for  to  brynge 
forth  chyldren  to  be  norysshed  in  the  lawes  &  seruyce  of  god  and 

*  Harrington,  Comendadons  of  Matrymony,  f .  Aii  b  fif . 

232 


APPENDIX    C  233 

that  is  ye  moost  pryncypall  cause  ...  or  els  secondarly  for 
remedy  ayenst  synne/  as  suche  as  ben  inclyned  naturally  to  the 
synne  of  ye  flesshe  and  wyll  not  endeuer  them  selfe  to  lyue  chaste 
may  make  matrymony  for  that  cause  to  avoyde  the  synne  of 
fornycacyon.  ...  Or  elles  thyrdely  for  solace  and  helpe  whiche 
eyther  may  have  of  other  without  the  acte  of  flesshely  medlynge. 
[  .  .  Secondarely  there  be  other  causes  whiche  mouen  rather  to 
take^rofie  pson  than  another/  as  ryches/  beaute/  refourmynge  of 
peace  or  suche  other.  .  .  .  But  suche  as  dothe  not  marry  pryn- 
cypally  for  one  of  the  thre  causes  afore  sayde  but  rather  pryncy- 
pally  for  ryches  beaute  or  frends  or  such  other  do  not  marry  godly 
nor  gracyously/  but  they  synne  deedly/  and  the  deuyll  hath  grete 
power  of  them.  .  .  .  Moreouer  this  consent  which  doth  make 
matrymony  ought  to  be  expressed  &  shewed  in  open  and  in  honest 
places  afore  &  in  the  psence  of  honest  &  laufull  wytnesses  called 
sp'ecyally  therefore,  ii.  at  ye  leest/  for  &  it  be  otherwyse  .  .  .  yt 
is  called  matrymony  cladestinat  whiche  for  many  causes  is  for- 
boden  by  the  lawe.  .  .  . 

And  when  matrymony  is  thus  laufully  made/  yet  the  man 
maye  not  possesse  the  woman  as  his  wyfe/  nor  the  woman  the 
man  as  her  husbonde  .  .  .  afore  suche  tyme  as  that  matrymony 
be  approued  and  solempnysed  by  oure  mother  holy  chyrche/  and 
yf  they  do  in  dede  they  synne  deedly.  And  to  that  solempnyte 
are  many  thynges  requyred  by  the  lawe.  Fyrste  is  that  the  banes 
must  be  asked  iii  sondayes  or  other  festyuall  dayes.  .  .  .  And 
euery  man  and  woman  whiche  dothe  knowe  ony  impedymente  or 
haue  ony  lykely  coniecture  of  ony  impedymente  are  bounde  for  to 
come  and  at  the  leest  denounce  and  shewe  the  same  to  the  curate. 
.  .  .  The  curate  also  him  selfe  is  bounden  for  to  make  dylygente 
serche  and  inquisycyon  for  to  knowe  yf  ony  impedymente  be  or 
ony  lykelyhode  of  impedymente  to  let  the  matrymony.  .  .  . 

More  ouer  it  is  to  understonde  that  he  sayde  solenysation  of 
matrimony  which  is  required  to  be  made  in  the  face  of  the  chirche 
may  not  be  made  euery  tyme  of  the  yere.  .  .  . 

And  this  solempynsacyon  oughte  to  be  made  in  the  face  of  the 
chyrche  in  the  clere  daye  after  the  sonne  be  rysen  and  with  hon- 
oure  and  reuerence. 


APPENDIX  D 

CONTENTS  OF  TYPICAL  DOMESTIC  BOOKS 

I.  Chapter  Headings  from  Perkins'  Christian  Oeconomie 

Chaps.  Pages 

1.  Of  Christian  Oeconomie,  and  of  the  Familie 1 

2.  Of  the  Household  sendee  of  God 7 

3.  Of  Maried  folkes 8 

4.  Of  the  Contract  [i.e.  spousals  de  praesenti^ 6 

5.  Of  the  choice  of  persons  fit  for  Marriage 44 

6.  Of  consent  in  the  Contract 8 

7.  Of  Reiection  or  Refusail  of  the  Contract 7 

8.  Of  Mariage  [i.e.  the  solemnization] 14 

9.  Of  the  duties  of  married  persons 12 

10.  Of  the  Communion  of  married  folkes,  and  of  due  beneuo- 

lence 12 

11.  Of  the  Husband 6 

12.  Of  the  Wife 4 

13.  Of  the  Parent 12 

14.  Of  the  Sonne 6 

15.  Of  the  Master 4 

16.  Of  the  Seruant 7 

17.  Of  the  Master  of  the  f  amihe  or  goodman  of  the  house 9 

18.  Of  the  Mistresse  of  the  familie  or  goodwif e  of  the  house ...  3 

II.  Outline  of  Gouge's  Domestical  DtUies  ^ 
I  Treatise. 

An  exposition  of  those  parts  of  the  Scriptures  upon  which 
the  book  is  based:  133  topics,  referred  to  Scriptural 
texts;  103  pages  in  all. 

^  This  summary  is  made  from  the  table  of  contents  of  the  book. 
Many  minor  topics  cannot  be  classified;  such  are  omitted. 

234 


APPENDIX  D  ^  235 

II  Treatise. 

Part  I.  Concerning  the  Marriage  Contract,  28  topics, 
20  pages. 

1.  What  persons  are  fit  to  marry,  8  topics. 

2.  Suitable  matches,  5  topics. 

3.  The  contract  [i.e.  spousals  de  praesenti],  10  topics. 

4.  The  rehgious  ceremony,  1  topic. 

5.  The  purpose  of  marriage,  etc.,  5  topics. 

Part  II.  Mutual  Duties  of  Husband  and  Wife,  45  topics, 
32  pages. 

1.  Unity  and  chastity,  8  topics. 

2.  Love,  peace,  etc.,  6  topics. 

3.  Of  absence  from  one  another,  3  topics. 

4.  Of  prayers,  4  topics. 

5.  Mutual  care  and  help,  9  topics. 

6.  Of  keeping  up  family  respect  and  credit,  9  topics. 

7.  Joint  government  of  the  family,  2  topics. 

8.  Hospitality,  2  topics. 

9.  Charity,  2  topics. 

III  Treatise.    The  Wife's  Duties,  74  topics,  44  pages. 

1.  Wife's  inferiority  and  subjection  to  husband,  mild- 

ness, obeisance,  modesty  in  apparel,  meekness    of 
speech,  etc.,  17  topics. 

2.  The  necessity  of  the  husband's  consent    in   family 

matters,  in  the  management  of  the  house,  and  in  the 
disposition  of  property,  5  topics. 

3.  Various  kinds  of  subjection  on  the  part  of  the  wife  to 

the  husband,  11  topics. 

4.  The  wife's  obedience,  meekness,  forebearance,  humil- 

ity, cheerfulness,  etc.  (also  the  opposite  qualities)  in 
various  matters,  26  topics. 

5.  Husband  and  wife  in  general,  the  former  resembhng 

Christ,  and  the  latter  the  church,  5  topics. 

IV  Treatise.    The   Husband's  Duties,  76  topics,  40  pages.    A 

detailed  but  poorly  organized  account  of  the  husband's 
authority  and  superiority  over  the  wife  and  of  how 


236  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

these  should  be  used  to  the  best  advantage,  under  such 

captions  as: 
Of  husbands  wise  maintaining  his  authority. 
Of  husbands  courteous  accepting  their  wives  reuerend 

carriage. 
Of  an  husbands  manner  in  teaching  his  wife. 
Of  undue  reproofe. 
Of  husbands  beating  their  wives. 
Of  an  husband  prouiding  for  his  wife. 
Of  husbands  constancy  in  loue. 

V  Treatise.    Children's  Duties,  64  topics,  36  pages. 

1.  Love,  fear,  and  obedience  to  parents,  11  topics. 

2.  Of  children's  entrance  into  business  or  profession,  3 

topics. 

3.  Of  Parents'  consent  in  the  marriage  of  children,  7  topics. 

4.  Obedience  and  submission  of  children  to  parents  under 

various  conditions,  20  topics. 

5.  Care  of  parents  in  sickness,  age,  and  death,  8  topics. 

6.  Obedience  to  others  over  them,  3  topics. 

VI  Treatise.    Duties  of  Parents  to  Children,  79  topics,  48  pages. 

1.  General  care  and  love  of  children,  8  topics. 

2.  Birth  and  nourishment  of  a  child,  8  topics. 

3.  Baptism,  6  topics. 

4.  Nurture,  5  topics. 

5.  Instruction  in  manners  and  profession,  6  topics. 

6.  Instruction  in  piety,  3  topics. 

7.  General  points  in  the  nurture,  instruction,  and  correc- 

tion of  children,  13  topics. 

8.  Providing  them  with  calhng  or  profession,  4  topics. 

9.  Providing  for  them  in  marriage,  4  topics. 

10.  Duties  of  parent  upon  death  of  child,  8  topics. 

11.  Duties  of  foster  parents,  guardians,  and  others,  9 

topics. 
VII  Treatise.    Servants'  Duties,  43  topics,  30  pages. 

1.  Fear  and  reverence  of  masters,  6  topics. 

2.  Obedience,  etc.,  to  masters,  10  topics. 


APPENDIX   D  237 

3.  Different  manners  of  serving  (with  diligence,  quick- 

ness, etc.),  5  topics. 

4.  Of  servants'  faithfulness  in  various  offices,  11  topics. 

5.  Motives  for  good  service,  4  topics. 

VIII  Treatise.  Masters'  Duties  to  servants,^  49  topics,  26  pages. 

1.  Choice  of  servants,  2  topics. 

2.  The  master's  authority  and  charge  over  servants,  16 

topics. 

3.  Management  of  servants'  affairs  and  duties,  26  topics. 

III.  Griffith's  Bethel 

Reprint  of  Table  of  Contents 

A  Plat-forme  of  the  whole  Building 

Question  1  Pag.  2. 

How  may  I  serve  God  as  a  member  of  a  familie? 

Answer 
When  you  are  some  part  of  Gods  building 

Secondly  p.  7. 

What  is  Gods  building? 

A  well-order 'd  famihe      mi.-  ji  o 

Thirdly  p.  8. 

What  is  a  well-order'd  familie? 

Head. 

Members. 


That  which  hath  orderly  < 


Fourthly  p.  9. 

What  is  the  rule  whereby  both  head,  and  members  must 
be  squar'd  and  order'd? 

The  written  word  of  God,  contain'd  in  the  Canonicall 
bookes  of  the  old  and  new  Testament. 

*  The  relations  of  the  servants  to  the  household,  according  to 
Gouge,  are  entirely  the  concern  of  the  master.  In  his  treatise  of  the 
wife's  duties,  he  gives  her  charge  of  the  household  only  in  case  her 
husband  is  "  very  blockish  and  stupid,"  or  unfit  to  manage  his  affairs 
on  account  of  "some  distemper,  wound,  or  sickness."  Most  writers 
allow  the  wife  more  authority  in  household  affairs. 


238 


ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 


Fifthly  p.  12. 

May  not  then  an  house  bee  governed  by  policy? 
It  may;  so  the  worke  of  the  braine  hinder  not  the 
worke  of  the  conscience. 

Sixthly  p.  18. 

How  may  I  bee  sure  that  my  House  is  built  by  God? 
Timber. 
Framing. 
When  it  is  God*s  \  Setting  up. 
Finishing. 
Furnishing. 

What  i8  Gods  Timber?   ^^^"^'^  P- ^9. 

Single  persons:  (who  if  they  cannot  abstaine,  they  must 

marrie)  f  Old      1  , ..  ,rrr 

j  , ,  <  ^r  )  Men,  or  Women, 

and  they  are  \  Young  J  ' 

Eighthly  p.  30. 

How  must  Old  men  be  framed? 

Sober. 

Honest. 

Discreet,  f  Faith. 

Sound  in  \  Love. 

[  Patience. 

Ninethly  p.  114. 

How  must  Old  Women  be  framed? 

Be  of  such  behaviour  as  becommeth  holinesse. 

Not  be  false-accusers. 

Not  given  to  much  Wine. 

Be  teachers  of  honest  things  to  younger  Women. 

10.  p.  141. 

How  must  young  I  ^  >  be  framed? 

Remember  their  Creatour  in  the  dayes  of 
their  youth. 
They  must  -j  Be  sober-minded,  and  flye  the  lusts  of  youth. 
Honour  the  person  of  the  Aged. 
Feare  the  Lord. 


They  must  be 


They  must 


«  APPENDIX  D  239 

11.  p.  223. 

Seeing  that'  a  familie  built  by  God,  stands  upon 
a  foundation,  and  that  foundation  is  mariage  in 
the  Lord:  tell  me  what  mariage  is? 

It  is  a  convenant  of  God,  whereby  all  sorts  of  people 
may,  of  two,  bee  made  one  flesh;  for 
Multiplying  of  an  holy  seed. 
The  ■  Avoiding  of  fornication. 

,  Mutuall  comforting  of  each  other. 

12.  p.  244. 
The  our  mariage  may  bee  in  the  Lord,  what  should 

wee  chief ely  doe  before  we  marrie? 
We  may  do  well  to  f  A  right  choyce. 
see  that  wee  make  \  An  holy  contract. 

13.  p.  245. 
What  should  we  looke  into  in  our  choyce? 

Choose  not  within  the  degrees  forbidden. 
That  we    Take  more  care  for  inward  goodnesse, 
,  than  outward  goods 

U.  vy  p.  255. 

How  may  we  so  choose  that   (probabUe)   we   may 
have  vertuous  Wives? 
Report. 
Lookes. 

Talke,  and  silence. 
Apparell. 
Company. 
Education. 


By 


15.  p.  269. 

What  is  an  holy  contract? 

A   marriage-desiring   promise   between   two    persons: 
with  consent 
^«  f  Parents. 
1  Parties. 


240  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

16.  p.  273. 
That  our  marriage  may  bee  in  the  Lord,  what  things 

especially  should  accompanie  it? 
[  Gift  of  the  Parent. 
The  \  Blessing  of  the  Priest. 

I  Mutuall  rejoycing  of  Friends. 

17.  p.  280. 
What  must  follow  a  godlie  marriage? 

{Cohabitation. 
Communion. 

18.  p.  287. 
The  foundation  of  a  godlie  familie  being  thus  laid; 

and  the  upper  building  standing  in  relations  betweene 
Man,  and  Wife;  Parents,  and  children;  Maisters,  and 
servants,  say  first,  what  are  the  common  duties  of  the 
Husband,  and  his  Wife? 

To  <  T5    -  '.,*  *  ',  .     >  each  other. 
{  Be  faithfull  to  J 

19.  p.  316. 
What  is  the  particular  dutie  of  the  Husband? 

[  Dwell  with  his  Wife  like  a  man  of  Knowledge. 
He  must  -j  Give  her  honour 

[  Leave  Father,  and  Mother  and  cleave  unto  her. 


What  is  the  particular  dutie  of  the  Wife? 
She  must  be  subject  to  her  Husband. 


p.  332. 


21.  p.  334. 

What  are  the  duties  of  parents  to  their  Children? 

(Naturally. 
Civilly. 
Religiously. 

Dispose  of  them  to  (^r^.*''^''"^- 
^  [  Marriage. 


APPENDIX   D 


241 


p.  366. 


What  are  the  duties  of  Children? 
Reverence.  1 

Obedience.  r  to  their  parents. 

Thankefuhiesse.  J 
Love  to  each  other. 


They  are 


23.  p. 

What  are  the  duties  of  Maisters? 

Choose  their  servants  by  the  feare  of  God. 
Enjoyne  them  la-  f  Measure, 
hour  but  not  above  \  Strength. 
Recompense  their  diUgence  by  given 

{Meate. 
Drinke. 
Cloathing. 


379. 


They  must 


They  must 


What  are  the  duties  of  Servants? 
"  Be  subject. 

Please  their  Maisters  in  all  things. 
Not  answer  againe. 
Be  faithfuU. 

How  must  Gods  building  be  finished? 

By  an  orderly  govern-  f  Father   \    ^ , ,     /.     m- 
.      J     fu  \  Ti/r  ^x.     r  of  ^^^  famihe. 

ment  under  the         I  Mother  J 


p.  383. 


p.  391. 


p.  393. 


What  are  the  duties  of  the  Father  of  the  familie? 
^    f  Be  carefull  that  his      f  Every  day. 
»      house-hold  serve  God  \  On  the  Sabbath. 
I       Provide  for  it. 
^    I  Exercise  disciphne  in  it. 

27,  p. 

What  are  the  duties  of  the  Mother,  or  Mistris  of  the 
famihe? 


412. 


242 


ENGLISH  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 


{Keepe  at  home. 
Governe  the  house  in  her  place. 
Give  the  portion  of  food  in  her  house-hold. 

28. 

Gods  building  being  thus  framed,  and  finished;    how 
may  we  procure  Gods  furniture  for  our  houses? 
Getting  our  goods  by  honest  labour. 

'  Buying. 
Doing,  as  wee  would 
bee  done  unto,  in  .  . 


p.  418. 


By 


SelUng. 
Letting. 
Borrowing. 
Lending. 


p.  429. 


Gods  building  being  finished,  and  furnish'd;  what 
must  every  member  of  the  same  doe  as  the  summe  of 
their  dutie? 

God. 


They  must 


Feare  ,  ,,    t^. 

{ the  King. 

Not  meddle  with  them  that  be  seditious. 


SO.  p.  453. 

You  have  hitherto  taught  us  how  to  serve  God  in  life; 
now  say  (in  one  word)  how  may  we  serve  him  even  in 
death? 

You  must  die  in  the  Lord:  and  this  you  then  only  doe, 

1-  r     J    XI.  u        /  Godhe  Life, 

when  you  prepare  for  death,  by  a  \  p    -^    ±.     j 


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Hannay,  Patric,  a  Happy  Husband,  London,  1618. 
Harrington,  William,  In  this  boke  are  cpnteyned  the  comendacions 


/ 


248  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

of  matrymony/  the  maner  &  fourme  of  contractyng  solempnsy' 

ynge  and  lyuyng  in  the  same,  etc.,  London,  1528.    C42pp.  4**] 
Hemmingius,  Nicolas,  Libellus  de  Coniitgio,  Repudio,  &  Divortio, 

Leipsig,  1572. 
Herman  V,  A  brief  e  and  plains  declaration  of  the  duety  of  maried 

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Hervet,  G.,  see  Xenophon. 
Heywood,  John,  A  Dialogue  .  .  .  in  a  matter  concerninge  two 

maner  of  mariages,  London,  1561. 
Heywood  Thomas,  The  Exemplary  Lives  and  Memorable  Acts  of 

Nine  the  Most  Worthy  Women  of  the  World,  London,  1640. 
,  TvvalKeLov:  or.  Nine  Bookes  of  Variotis  History  concerninge 

Women,  London,  1624. 

,  See  also  Curtaine  Lecture,  A. 

Hic-Mvlier:    or.  The  Man-Woman;   Being  a  Medicine  to  cure  the 
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our  Times,  [London,  1620?]. 
Hooper,  John,  Early  Writings  (Parker  So.),  Cambridge,  1843. 
HowsoN,  John,  Uxore  dismissa  propter  Fornicationem  cdiam  non 

licet  superinducere,  Oxford,  1606.    (1st  ed.  1602.) 
"*  Hundreth  poyntes  of  evell  huswrifrye.  An,  Aide,  1565-6. 
Htrde,  R.,  see  Vives,  J.  L. 
Institutions  of  a  Christian  Man,  London,  1537. 
K.,  T.,  see  Tasso,  T. 
King's  Book,  see  Necessary  Doctrine,  etc. 
Kjngsmill,  Andrew,  A  Viewe  of  mans  estate  .  .  .  where  unto  is 

annexed  a  goodlie  advise  .  .  .  touching  mariage,  London,  1574. 

(Written  in  1560.) 
•=»  Elnox,  John,  The  first  Blast  of  the  Trumpet  against  the  Monstrous 

Regiment  of  Women,  [Geneva],  1558. 
,  The  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland,  Glascow,  1761. 

(Written  in  1567;  apparently  first  printed  in  1586.) 
Kyd,  T.,  see  Tasso,  T. 

Late  Assembly  of  Divines  Confession  of  Faith,  The,  London,  1651. 
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Lechfield,  Thomas,  Plaine-dealing:  or,  Newes  from  New  England, 

London,  1642. 


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LowTH,  W.,  see  Batty,  B. 

Mancinus,  Dominicus,  a  Myrrour  of  Good  Manners  (tr.  Alex. 
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Markham,  Francis,  The  Booke  of  Honour,  London,  1625. 

Milton,  John,  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce,  etc.,  London, 
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NiccHOLES,  Alexander,  A  Discovrse  of  Marriage  and  Wiving,  etc., 
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NrxoN,  Anthony,  see  N.,  A. 

Norden,  John,  The  Labyrinth  of  Mans  Life,  London,  1614. 

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don, 1576. 

Overbury,  Thomas,  A  Wife,  London,  1614. 

Page,  Thomas,  *  A  Demonstration  of  Family  Duties,  London,  1643. 

Paget,  Ephriam,  Heresiography:  or,  A  description  of  the  Here- 
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Paget,  John,  An  Arrow  against  the  Separation  of  the  Brownists, 
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Palmer,  Herbert,  The  Glasse  of  Gods  Providence,  [London],  1644. 

Panedonius,  p.,  see  Brathwait,  R. 

Payne  and  sorowe  of  ewytl  Maryage,  The,  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  [n.d.]. 

Paynell,  T.,  see  Vives,  J.  L. 

Peacham,  Henry,  The  Compleat  Gentleman,  London,  1622. 

Perkins,  William,  Christian  Oeconomie  (tr.  Thos.  Pickering), 
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250  ENGLISH   DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

Perkins,  WilliAm,  The  Golden  Chain,  London,  1591. 

Philotus,  Ane  verie  excellent  and  delectabill  Treatise  intUuLit  Philotus, 

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Primaudate,  Pierre  de  la,  The  French  Academic  (tr.  T.  B.), 

London,  1586. 
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Pye,  Thomas,   *  Epistola  ad  Jo.  Howsonum  contra  novum  ejus 

Dogma  de  Divortiis  Judaeorum,  London,  1603. 
R.,  T.  [Thomas  Rogers],  The  Anatomic  of  the  minde,  London, 

1576. 
Rainolds,  John,  A  Defence  of  the  Ivdgment  of  the  Reformed  Churches, 

etc.,  [London],  1609. 
Raleigh,  Walter,  Remains  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  London,  1675. 

/Reformatio  Legum  Ecclesiasticarum  (ed.  John  Fox),  London,  1571. 
Rich,  Barnaby,  The  Excellency  of  good  women,  London,  1613. 
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Ridley,  Thomas,  A  Viewe  of  Civile  and  Ecclesiasticall  Law,  Oxford, 

1676.    (1st  ed.,  1607.) 
Robinson,  John,  A  iust  and  necessarie  Apologie  of  certain  Christians 

no   lesse   contumeliously   than  commonly   called  Brownists   or 

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RoBSON,  S.,  The  Covrt  of  ciuill  Courtesie,  London,  1591. 
Rogers,  Daniel,  Matrimoniall  Honovr,  London,  1642.  [387pp.  4°] 
Rogers,  T.,  see  R.,  T. 

Rous,  Francis,  The  Art  of  Happiness,  London,  1619. 
S.,  S.,  *  Brief  Instructions  for  Fami'ies,  1583. 
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Segar,  William,  Honor  Military  and  Ciuill,  London,  1602. 
Selden,  John,  De  Jure  naturali  et  Gentium  juxta  Disciplinam 

Hebraeorum  libri  septem,  London,  1640. 
Shrewde  and  Curste  Wyfe  lapped  in  Morrelles  skin,  A,  Jackson, 

:n.d.3. 
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Snawsel,  Robert,  A  Looking  Glasse  for  maried  Folkes,  London, 

1610. 
SowERNAM,  Ester,  [pseudonym]  Ester  hath  hanged  Haman,  etc., 

[London,  1617]. 


BIBLIOGRAPHIES  261 

{^/Speght,  Ra-CHEL,  a  Mouzell  for  Melastomus,  the  Cynicall  Bayter 
of,  and  foule  mouthed  Barker  against  Evahs  sex,  London,  1617. 

Stafford,  Anthony,  The  Gvide  to  Honovr,  London,  1634. 

Stockwood,  John,  A  Bartholmew  Fairing  for  Parentes,  London, 
1589. 

Swetnam,  Joseph,  see  Teltruth,  T. 

Swetnam  the  Woman-hater,  arraigned  by  women,  London,  1620. 

Swinburne,  Henry,  A  Treatise  of  Spousals,  London,  1686.  (Writ- 
ten c.  1600.) 

T.,  R.,  see  Tasso,  H.  and  T. 

Tasso,  Hercules  and  Torquato,  Of  Mariage  and  Wiuing  (tr. 
R.  T.),  London,  1599. 

Tasso,  Torquato,  The  HoushoUers  Philosophie  (tr.  T.  K.  [Thomas 
Kyd]),  London,  1588. 

/Taverner,  R.,  see  Erasmus,  D. 
Teltruth,  Thomas  (i.e.  Joseph  Swetnam),   The  Araignment  of 
Lewde,  idle,  froward,  and  vnconstant  women,  London,  1615. 
Testimony  to  the  Truth  of  Jesus  Christ,  A,  London,  1647. 
Tilney,  Edmund,  The  Flower  of  Friendship,  etc.,  London,  1568. 
TiNDALE,  John,  *  Matrimonium.    (But  see  p.  114,  n.  1,  above.) 
TopsELL,  Edward,  The  House-holder;  or,  Perfect  Man,  [London], 

/1610. 
ToRSHELL,  Samuel,  The  Womans  Glorie,  London,  1645. 
TouTEViLLE,  Daniel,  *  Saint  Paul's  Threefold  Cord,  London,  1635. 
Tractatus  modestg^  et  Christianu^s,  contra  reprehensiones   T.   Pyi 

(Published  with  Howson's  Uxore  dismissa),  Oxford,  1606. 
Travers,  Walter,  Ecclesiasticae  Disciplinae,  et  Anglicanae  Eccle- 

siae  ah  ilia  aberrationis,  plane  b  verba  Dei,  &  diludda  explicatio, 

La  Rochelle,  1574. 

,  See  also  Cartwright,  T. 

Twelve  mery  gestys  of  one  called  Edyth,  Rastell,  1525. 

Vaughan,  William,  The  Golden  Grove,  moralized  in  three  Bookes, 

London,  1608  (1st  ed.,  1599).    [59pp.  8°] 
ViRET,  Pierre,  The  Schoole  of  Beast es,  intituled,  the  good  Hou,s- 

holder,  etc.  (tr.  J.  B.),  London,  1585. 
ViVES,  J.  L.,  Instruction  of  a  Christian  Woman  (tr.  Rich.  Hyrde), 

London,  [1540?].    [310pp.  4°].    (Original,  De  Institutione  Foe- 

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252  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

ViVES,  J.  L.,  The  Office  and  duetie  of  an  Husband  (tr.  Thos.  Paynell), 

London,  [1553].    [410pp.  8°] 
W.,  R.,  *  Order  of  Matrimony,  London,  1580. 
Wedlocke,  Walter,  A  lyttle  treatyse  called  the  Image  of  Idlenesse, 

conteynynge  certeyne  matters  moued  betwene  Walter  Wedlocke 

and  Bawdin  Bacheler,  London,  [1550?]. 
Whately,  William,  A  Bride-bush,  London,  1619.    [220pp.  4**]     • 
"■^-Whitford,  Richard,  A  werke  for  housholders/  or  for  them  yt  hav^ 

the  gydynge  or  gouernaunce  of  any  company,  London,  1533. 

[43pp.  8°]    (Isr  ed.,  1531.) 
Whitgift,  John,  Works  (Parker  So),  Cambridge,  1851-53. 
WiCLiF,  John,  Of  Weddid  Men  and  Wifis  and  of  Here  Children  also, 

in  Select  English  Works  of  John  Wyclif  (ed.  Arnold),  Oxford, 

1871. 
^  WiLLOBY,  Henry,  WiUobie  his  Avisa:    or,  the  true  picture  of  a 

modest  Maide,  and  of  a  chaste  and  constant  wife,  London, 

1594. 
Wright,  Leonard,  A  Display  ofdutie,  diet  with  sage  sayings,  pythie 

sentences,  and  proper  similies,  London,  1589. 
-—  Xenophon,  Treatise  of  an  Hov^hold  (tr.  G.  Hervet),  London,  1532. 

Cl05pp.  8°] 

IL  Books  on  Henry  Villus  Divorce 

Disputed  points  as  to  date,  authorship,  etc.,  are  discussed  in 
Appendix  A,  above. 

Abel,  Thomas,  *  Invicta  Veritas:  An  Answer  that  by  no  manner  of 
law  it  may  be  lawful  for  the  King  to  be  divorced  from  the  Queen's 
Grace,  etc.,  MS.  c.  1530.    (London  Record  Office.) 

,  *  Tract,  de  non  dissolvendo  Henrid  &  Catherinae  matrimonio, 

MS.  c.  1530.    (Record  Office.) 

Articles  devised  by  the  consent  of  the  King's  council,  etc.,  pub.  with 
A  Glasse  of  the  Truthe,  London,  [1531]. 

Articvli  duodecim,  quibus  plane  admodum  demonstrabat,  divortium 
.  .  .  necessario  esse  faciendum.  MS.  c.  1530.  (British  Museum.) 
Printed  in  Pocock's  Records  of  the  Reformation,  I,  334. 

Censurae,  see  Gravissimae,  etc. 


BIBLIOGRAPHIES  253 

*  Confutation  of  that  answer  which  Master  John  Ahell,  priest,  lately 
made  against  the  Book  of  Determinations  of  the  Universities  in 
the  King^s  cause,  A,  MS.  c.  1530.    (Record  Office.) 

Cranmer,  Thomas,  *  His  book  in  favor  of  the  King  (apparently 
non-extant).    MS.?    1530. 

Determinations  of  the  moste  famous  and  moste  excellent  universities 
of  Italy  and  Fraunce,  that  it  is  so  unlefull  for  a  man  to  marie  his 
brothers  wyfe,  that  the  pope  hath  no  power  to  despence  therwithy 
The,  [London,  1531].    [308pp.  8°] 

Fisher,  John,  De  Causa  matrimonii  Regis  Angliae  liber,  [M. 
de  Eguia,  Compluti,  Spain],  1530.  (Also  published  by  Alcala 
de  Henares,  1530.) 

,  *  Defensorum  matrimonii  regis  cum  Catherina,  etc.     Begin: 

**Licitum  fuisse  matrimonium  Henr.  VIII.^'  MS.  1529.  (Cam- 
bridge Univ.  Lib.) 

,  His  reply  to  the  Censurae,  trans,  in  Harpsfield,  Pretended 

Divorce,  Pt.  I. 

,  MS.  in  Record  Office.     (See  above,  p.  217.) 

Glasse  of  the  Truthe,  A,  London,  [1531]. 

Gravissimae  atque  exactissimae  illustrissimarum  totius  Italiae,  et 
Galliae  Academiarum  Censurae  .  .  .  de  veritate  illius  proposi- 
tionis.  Videlicet  que  ducere  relictam  fratris  mortui  sine  liberie 
ita  sit  de  iure  divino  et  naturali  prohibitum:  ut  nullus  Pontifex 
super  huiu^modi  matrimoniis  contractis,  siue  contrahendis  dis- 
pensare  possit,  London,  1530,  \j.e.  1531].    [142pp.  4°] 

Harpsfield,  Nicholas,  Treatise  on  the  Pretended  Divorce  between 
Henry  VIII  and  Catherine  of  Aragon,  London,  1878.  (Written 
in  Queen  Mary's  reign.) 

HoLYMAN,  John,  *  Defensio  Matrimonii  Reginae  Catherinae  Cum 
Rege  Henrico  Octavo. 

Pole,  Reginald,  *  De  non  dissolvendo  connubio  regis  Henr.  VIII 
et  Catherinae,  MS.?    1531. 

,  Reginaldi  Poli  .  .  .  ad  Henricu  octavum  .  .  .  pro  ecclesias- 

ticae  unitatis  defensione  libri  quatuor,  [1538]. 

TuNSTALL,  Cuthbert,  *  Treatise  in  Defense  of  the  Marriage  of 
Queen  Katherine  with  Henry  8. 

ViVES,  Non  esse,  neque  diuino  nequ£  naturae  iure  prohibitum,  quin 


254  ENGLISH  DOMESTIC   RELATIONS 

Summus  Pontifex  dispensare  possit,  ut  frater  sine  liberis  fratris 
uxorem  ligitimo  matrimonio  sibi  possit  adiungere,  adversus 
aliquot  Academiarum  censuras  tumuUuria  ac  perbreuis  Apolo- 
gia sine  confutatio,  Luneburg,  1532. 

Wakefield,  Robert,  Kotser  Codicis  R,  Wakefeldi  quo  praeter 
ecclesiae  .  .  .  decretum,  probatur  conjugium  cum  fratria  carnal- 
iter  cognita,  iUicitum  .  .  .  interdictumque  esse,  etc.,  London, 
[1536?].     (Written  in  1529.) 

,  Syntagma  de  Hebraeorum  codicum  incorruptione,   [London, 

1535?]. 


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Neal,  Daniel,  The  History  of  the  Puritans,  London,  1822. 

Philips,  Edward,  The  Life  of  Milton  (written  in  1694,  pubUshed 
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Phillimore,  G.  G.,  Ecclesiastical  Law  of  the  Church  of  England, 
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Tanner,  Thomas,  Bibliotheca  Britannica-Hibemica,  London,  1748. 
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Watt,  Robert,  Bibliotheca  Britannica,  Edinburgh,  1824. 
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WiNTHROP,  John,  The  History  of  New  England  from  1630-1649 

(ed.  Savage),  Boston,  1853. 
Wood,  Anthony  1,  Athenae  Oxonienses  (ed.  Bliss),  London,  1813- 

1820. 
WooLSEY,  Theodore  D.,  Divorce  and  Divorce  Legislation,  New 

York,  1882. 


INDEX 


Titles  of  books  are  here  given  in  abbreviated  form;  for  exact  titles 
see  bibliographies. 


A.,  O.,  123 

Abel,  J.,  212 

Abel,  T.,  211,  212,  221,  222 

Academie  FranQoise,  181,  184 

Acts  and  Monuments,  114 

Acts  and  Ordinances,  34,  36,  56, 
58,99 

Acts  of  Parhament, 
25H8cal9,  61 

32H8ca38,  61-62,  64,  65,  85 
abolition  of  bishoprics,  92 
Cromwell's  marriage  and  di- 
vorce act,  58,  99 
overthrow  of  bishops,  85 
Star  Chamber,  85 

Admonition  to  Parliament,  78 

Aerius  redivivus,  30,  44 

Affinity,  see  Levitical  degrees 

Agrippa,  116,  161,  221 

Ainsworth,  70 

Alday,  244 

Allott,  184 

All's  Well,  19,  197,  198 

Ambrose,  St.,  113 

Ames,  107,  113,  118,  216,  221 

Ampner,  216 

Anabaptists  Duck'd,  98,  231 

Anatomic  of  the  minde,  183 

Anatomy  of  Abitses,  126 

Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  183,   186, 
187 


Annotationes  in  Nov.  Test.  (Eras- 
mus), 111 

Annotationes  in  Lib.  Evangeliorum 
(Grotius),  230 

Annotations  in  Old  and  New  Test. 
(Reform  divines),  93,  94,  231 

Annulment  of  marriage,  see  di- 
vorce 

Answer  to  Apologeticall  Narror 
tion,  43,  52 

Answer  to  Doctrine  and  Discipline, 
86,  96,  98,  99,  148,  229 

Answere  to  Hic-Mvlier,  168-169 

Antapologia,  43,  52 

Anything  for  a  Quiet  Life,  196 

Apologie  of  Brownists  (Robinson), 
43,53 

Apologie  or  Defense  of  Brownists 
(anon.),  38,  48,  53 

Apologie  of  Hic-Mulier,  168-169 

Apologeticall  Narration,  43 

Aquinas,  9 

Araignment  of  women,  168 

Arden  of  Faversham,  193,  199 

Ariosto,  146 

Aristotle,  113,  181,  188 

Arrow  against  Brownists,  43 

Ars  Avlica,  182 

ArHasleepe  Husband?,  145-146, 169 

Art  of  Happiness,  187 

Art  to  Please  in  Court,  182 


257 


258 


INDEX 


Aries  of  Logike  and  Rethoric,  130 
Arthur  (prince),  7,  207,  208,  209 
Articles  of  1552,  12,  40,  118 
Articles  of  King's  council,  217 
Articuli  dModedm,  217 
As  You  Like  It,  46 
Ascham,  157,  173 
Assembly  of  Divines  (1643),  92 
Assembly  of  Divines  Confession  of 

Faith,  88 
Athenae  Oxonienses,  116,  211,  223 
d'Aubign^,  174 
Aubrey,  227 

Augustine,  St.,  113,  122,  150 
AvereU,  189-190 
Avisa,  190 
Aylmer,  147,  172 
Ayrault,  135 

B.,  J.,  130 

B.,  R.,  145 

B.,  T.,  181 

Bachelars  Banquet,  164,   167 

Bacon,  F.,  144,  189 

Bacon,  L.,  38,  53,  66 

Baillie,  38,  48,  52,  55,  70 

Bale,  212 

BandeUo,  201 

Banns,  6,  20,  41,  50 

Bansley,  163 

Barckley,  186 

Barclay,  143,  146,  181 

Barrow,  46-47,  79 

Bartholmew  Fairing  for  Parentes, 

131 
Bastwick,  32 
Batty,  131 
Becon,  15,  69,  75,  111,  114,  121, 

125,    126,    127-129,     155-156, 

167-158 


Bellamera,  224 

Bellarmino,  82,  84 

Bercher,  161 

Bemers,  170 

Berthelet,  209,  214 

Bethrothal,  see  spousals  de  prae- 

senti 
Bethel,   133,    134,    136,    137-138, 

237-242 
Beza,  82 

Bihlia  (Delft  and  Leyden)  38 
Bibliotheca    Britannica-Hibemica, 

211,  212,  218 
Bibliotheca  Erasmina,  111 
Bishops'  Book,  117 
Biographical  Chronicle,  190 
Blanchette,  206 
Blandy,  181 
Blazon  of  Gentrie,  183 
Blount,  182 
Blunt,  117,  118,  119 
Boccaccio,  146 
Bodenham,  184 
Boleyn,  Anne,  13,  207,  209 
Boleyn,  Mary,  207 
Boke  of  Good  Manners,  102-106 
Boke  of  Mayd  Emlyn,  164 
Boke  of  Matrimony,  75,  121,  125, 

127-129,  155-156 
Book  of  Discipline,  30 
Book  of  Form  of  Common  Prayer,  30 
Booke  of  Honour,  185 
BothweU,  64 
Bouaistuau,  129,  153 
Bowes,  160 
Bradford,  38,  53 
Bradshaw,  31-32,  79,  81 
Brathwait,    145-146,    161,    162- 

163,  186 
Brentinus,  75 


INDEX 


259 


Bride-bush,  69,  86,  136  Carew,  174 

Brides  and  Bridals,  3,  6, 2^23,  59,  Carter,  123, 136 

171  Carter's  Christian  Commonwealth, 

Bridgett,  210,  223  123,  136 

Brief  e  declaration  of  duety  of  maried  Cartwright,  29,  30,  35,  41,  42,  44, 

folkes,  130  78,  79 

Brief  Discoveries  of  False  Churches,  Castiglione,  144, 179, 181 

46-47  Catechi^me  (Becon),  69,  127,  158 

Brief  Instructions  for  Families,  IZO  Catechisme  of  Christian  Religion, 

Brieux,  206  38,  39 

Brinsley,  151,  153  Catherine  (queen),  7,  13,  71,  112, 

Broke,  201  117, 170, 207-224 

Brook,  43,  46,  67,  132  Catherine  de'  Medici,  171 

Brown,  26,  30,   44,   45,   46,   51,  Caxton,  102,  107,  122 

76-78  Censura  Liberaria,  116 

Brownists,  30,  38,  43,  44-49,  52,  Censurae  Academiarum,  214-217, 


60,70 
Brydges,  116 
Bryskett,  186,  188 
Bucer,  29,  65,  75,  76,  82,  98,  226, 

229 
Budden,  135 
Bugenhagen,  21 
BuUinger,  24.  26,  27,  68,  74,  75, 

102, 112, 114-116, 119,  120, 126, 

157 
Bunny,  81,  83 
de  Burgo,  216 
Burnet,  213,  214,  216 
Burroughes,  70 
Burton,  H.,  32 
Burton,  R.,  183,  186 

C,  R.,  129,  132,  133,  154 

C,  R.  (gent.),  187 

Calvin,  12,  29,  30,  35,  37,  49,  75 

Cajetanus,  9 

Cambridge  Hist.  Eng.   Lit.,   144,      Changeling,  5,  26 


218,  219,  220 
Ceremony  of  marriage,  17-19,  20- 
24,  27,  38-42,  49,  55,  57,  58, 
115,  233,  234,  235,  240 
America,   21    {see   also  mar- 
riage, civil) 

Brownist,  see  marriage 
Church   of   England,  20-24, 

27,  47,  55 
civil,  38,  48,  52,  58 
Geneva,  49,  50,  56 
HoUand,  37-39,  43,  49,  53 
Netherlands,  38,  53 
Protestant,  20,  21,  27 
Puritan,  42-44 

Reformed     churches,     (Eng- 
land), 53,  56,  59 
Roman  Catholic,  20-24 
Scotland,  49,  50,  51-54,  56 
Certain  Letters,  48 
Cervantes,  156 


145,  165,  181,  210 
Canterbury  Tales,  142,  164 


Chapuys,  209,  211,  212,  215,  217, 
219,  220 


260 


INDEX 


Charles  I  (king),  31, 32 

Charles  V  (emperor),  209,  211, 215 

217,  219 
Chaucer,  27,  142,  164,  166,  167, 

189,  191 
Cheke,  63 

Chelidonius,  130,  148 
Chettle,  197 

Child  Marriages,  5, 14, 16 
Children,  see  domestic  relations 
Chillester,  129 

Christ,  12,  25,  108,  109,  118 
Christen  state  of  Matrimonye,  24, 
27,  68,  74,  112,  114-116,  119, 
123,  125,  126,  157 
Christian  Oeconomie,  25, 42,  79-80, 

115,  131-132,  133,  234 
Christian  man's  Closet,  131 
Christian  Plea,  48 
Christine  de  Pisan,  170 
Chrysostom,  St.,  149 
Church  government 

Brownist,  48 

controversies  on,  76-79,  80- 
81,  84-85,  91-92 

courts,  66-67,  76-78 

English  Church  of  Common- 
wealth, 34r-36 

Geneva,  12,  29,  30,  35 

Guernsey,  35 

HoUand,  12 

Jersey,  35 

Presbyterian,  34,  35 

Puritan,  29-30,  41,  76 

Roman  Catholic,  29 

Scotland,  12,  34,  35,  51 

Zurich,  29 
Cicero,  140 
Ciprian,  St.,  113 


CivUl  and  Christian  NoUlUie,  181, 

183 
Clapham,  116,  161 
Cleaver,  132 
Cloister  and  Hearth,  19 
Coke,  A.,  173 
Coke,  E.,  65,  86,  99 
Colasteron,  99,  226,  229 
Comendacions  of  matrymony  (Har- 
rington),  40,    72-74,   106-108, 

232-233 
Commendation      of      Matrimony 

(Agrippa),  116 
Committee  of  Thirty-two,  63,  74 
Comparative  Law  of  Marriage  and 

Divorce,  9,  10 
Commyssion  unto  those  whose  wyves 

be  thayr  masters,  165 
Compendius  Form  of  Domestical 

Duties,  130 
Complaynt  of  all  them  that  be  to 

soone  maryed,  165 
Compleat  Gentleman,  185 
Concilia  Britanniae  et  HibemiaCt 

114 
Confession   of  faith    (Brownists), 

38,48 
Confessions  of  Faith  (Scots),  61 
Confession  de  Foy  des  Eglises  Re- 

formees,  39 
Confutation  of  John  Abell,  212 
Consanguinity,  see  Levitical  de- 
grees 
CorirUhians,  12,  42,  60,  151,  153 
Cortegiano,    129,    144,    179,   180, 

181,  182,  183 
Cotton,  52,  67 
Coudert,  1,  9,  10 
Court  of  CivUl  Courtesy,  182 


INDEX 


261 


Court  of  High  Commissions,  30, 

32,  34,  45,  76 
Courtiers  Arte,  182 
Coverdale,  24,  29,  112,  114,  119, 

121,  123 
Cranmer,  63,  213,  218,  220 
Cranmer,  Life  of,  213 

Memorials  of,  61,  62,  213, 214, 

218 
Remains  of,  213 
Croke,  219 
Cromwell,  36,  49,  54,  57,  58,  59, 

64,  70,  99,  216 
Cynthia,  174 
Curtaine  Lecture,  9,  133,  136,  145- 

146,  163,  169 

Dante,  172 

Davis,  228 

De  Captivitate  Bdbilonica,  12 

De  Causa  matrimonii,  210, 211,  212 

De  Conjunctio  episcopum,  21 

De   Institutione   Foeminae   Chris- 

tianae.  111,  116 
De  Jure  naturali,  89-90 
De  Nobilitate  Foeminei  Sexus,  161 
De  non  dissolvendo  connuhio,  218 
De  non  ducenda  Fratria,  212 
De  Regno  Christi,  29,  82,  98 
Declaration  of  Ecclesiasticall  Dis- 
cipline, 30,  35 
Declaration    of    Ten     Command- 
ments, 29,  74 
Defense  of  Reformed  Churches,  82, 

84 
Defense  of  good  women,  161 
Defence  of  the  Marriage  of  Queen 

Katherine,  223 
Defense  of  women,  161 
Defensio  Matrimonii  Reginae,  223 


Defensorum  matrimonii  regis,  210 
Dekin,  130 
Dekker,  164,  167,  169 
Demonstration  of  Family  Duties, 

136 
Description  of  Heretickes,  43-44, 

52 
Determinations    of    the    Universi- 
ties, 216-217 
Deuteronomy,  207,  211 
Dialoghi   delta   Vita   Civile,    181, 

186,  188 
Dialogue  of  maryages,  143 
Diamonde  Most  precious,  130 
Dignitie  of  Man,  153 
Dippers  dipt,  98,  231 
Directory  of  Public  Worship,  34, 

55,  56,  58,  59 
Directory    of    Church-government, 

30,  35,  41,  42,  44 
Discourse  for  Parents  Honour  and 

Auihoritie,  135 
Discourse  on  Matrimony,  136 
Discovrse  of  Civill  Life,  186,  188 
Discovrse  of  Felicitie  of  Man,  186 
Discovrse  of  Marriage  and  Wiving, 

136,  140,  178 
Discovrse  of  Married  and  Single 

Life,  125,  136,  163,  178 
Disobedient  child,  27,  192,  194,  201 
Display  of  dutie,  178,  184 
Display  of  Duty,  130 
Dissvasive  from  the  Errours  of  the 

Time,  38,  48,  52,  55,  70 
Divorce. 

a  mensa  et  thoro,  8,  12,  63, 

72,  76,  81,  87,  95,  107,  118 

a  vinculo  matrimonii,  8,   12, 

65,  67-69,  72,  79,  87 
Brownist,  70 


262 


INDEX 


Divorce  continued 
by  consent,  87 
by  minister,  66,  80 
canon  law  of,  1,  7,  13,  61, 

63,  84,  95 
causes  of,  8-11,  13,  20,  62-63, 

65,   72-74,   75,   79-80,  85, 

86,  87,  93-95  (see  also  mar- 
riage impediments) 
Christ  on,  12,  118 
Church  of   England,   72-73, 

75-76,  84 
civU,  67-69,  88,  99 
courts  for,  66,  67 
Cromwell's  act,  99 
early  Christian,  2 
German  reform  of,  11-13,  63, 

65,  68,  71,  72,  74,  75,  85,  98 
Hebrew,  67,  68,  69 
Henry  VIII's,  7,  11,  13,  71, 

72,  114,  117,  207-224 
Independents,  69,  70,  96-97, 

99 
jurisdiction   in   England  on, 

66-70,  99 
legislation    in    England    on, 

61-65,  71,  85,  99 
MUton  on,  5,  7, 15, 86, 91-100 
parliamentary,  100 
private,  68-70,  96,  97,  99 
Protestant,    12,    61,    65,    67, 

74,75 
Puritan,  65,  66,  74^76,  79-88, 

95-96 
reforms  of  1857,  100 
Reformed  chin-ches,  86 
Roman,  67 
Roman  Catholic,  7,  8,  62,  64, 

65,  72,  85,  86 
St.  Paul  on,  12 


Divorce   and   Divorce   Legislation^ 

11,  13 
Divorce  for  AduUerie,  81,  83 
Divorce,  History  of,  64 
Divorce,  History  of  D.  and  Remar' 

riage,  117,  119 
Divorcement,  81 

Doctoris  Pyi  impium  dogma,  83 
Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce, 
70,  90,  91-98,  99,  153,  225-231 
Doctrine   of   Church  of  England, 

117,  118,  119 
Dobell,  190 
Doll's  House,  206 
Domestical   Duties,    26,    86,    123, 

136,  137-138,  234-237 
Domestic  relations 

books  of,  101-146,  234r-242 
drama,  192-206 
children 

conduct  of,  103,  106 
duties,  127,  128,  131,  234, 

236,  241 
instruction,  101,  115,  118, 

131 
marriage,  6,  14,  15,  17,  88, 
115,  124,  125,  131,  133, 
156,  236 
upbringing,  102,  103,  107, 
109,  110,  113,  115,  116, 
131 
husband's  duties,    101,    102, 
104, 112, 113, 115, 116, 127, 
128, 132, 133, 153,  234,  235, 
236,  237,  240,  241 
parents'  duties,  102,  103,  106, 
115, 127, 128, 234,  236, 240, 
servants 
management  of,  102,  103, 
115,  234,  237 


INDEX 


263 


Domestic  relations  continued 
servants,  duties  of,  106,  127, 

129,  236,  237,  241 

wife's  duties,  101,  102,  103, 

104, 106,  112, 113, 115, 116, 

127, 128,  132,  135, 138, 154, 

157,  158,  234,  235,  240,  242 

Donne,  55,  88,  122,  133,  160,  171, 

178,  189 
Dort,  Synod  of,  38,  39,  56 
Douglas,  164 
Dove,  81,  83 
Draft  of  primUive  Church  system^ 

29 
Drayton,  202 
Ducci,  182 
Duchess  of  Malfi,  3 
Dunbar,  158,  164,  165 
Duety  of  maried  folkes,  130 
Duties  of  Husband  and  Wife,  133 
Dyall  for  dainty  darlings,  189-190 
Dyke,  136 

E.,  T.,  62,  161,  162 

Early  Books  in  Lambeth  Library, 

222 
Ecclesiastes,  25 
EccUsiasticae  Disciplinae,  30 
Ecclesiastical  Law  of  England,  1 
Ecclesiastical  Memorials,  215,  216 
Ecclesiastical  Polity,  46,  79 
Edward  IV,  203,  206 
Edward  VI,  21,  22,  28,  34,  49,  50, 

56,  63,  120,  122 
Edwards,  43,  48,  52,  162 
Einstein,  182 
Eheschliessung,  59 
EUzabeth,  28,  29,  32,  76,  78,  120, 

143,  147,  162,  171-174 
Elizabethan  Drama,  192 


Elyot,  161,  182,  217 
England  as  seen  by  Foreigners,  175 
England's  Helicon,  184 
English  Gentleman,  186,  187 
English  Gentlewoman,  161, 162-163 

187 
English  House,  170 
English  Law,  History  of,  8 
Englishmen  for  my  Money,  6,  202 
English  Puritanisme,  31-32,  81 
English  Traveller,  4,  204 
Ephesians,  151,  181 
Epistola  ad  Howsonun,  82 
Epysde  in  prayse  of  Matrymony, 

111 
Erasmus,  9,  75,  93,  111,  112,  130, 

144,  163 
Erasmus,  Life  of,  208 
Erskine,  188 
Esmein,  1 
Essex  (Lady),  64 
Ester  hath  hanged  Haman,  168 
Esther,  25 

Example  of  Virtue,  181 
Excellency  of  good  women,  161 
Exemplary  Lives  of  Women,  161, 

162,  173,  176 
Exposition  of  Hosea,  70 

Faerie  Queene,  181,  187-189,  190 

Fagius,  65 

Fair  Maid  of  West,  197 

Familiar  Studies,  160,  172,  174 

Family,  11 

Faret,  182 

Faults,  Faults,  126 

Featley,  D.,  98,  231 

Featley,  revived,  231 

Featley,  J.,  231 

Fenner,  130,  139 


264 


INDEX 


Feme,  183 

Field,  169 

Fiore,  183 

First  Blast  of  the  Trumpet,  172 

First  EpisUe  General,  151 

Fisher,    208,    210-211,    212-213, 

215,  217,  218,  220,  221,  222,  224 
Fisher,  Life  of,  210,  223 
Fit  John,  130 
Fleay,  190 
Fletcher,  195 
Florence,  Council  of,  2 
Flower  of  Friendship,  143 
Flower  of  VeHue,  183 
Form  of  Discipline   (Cartwright), 

30 
Forme  of  Prayers,  50 
Fcrnne  far  Families,  133,  134,  136, 

137-138,  237-242 
Fox,  J.,  114, 173 
Foxe,  E.,  209,  213,  216,  222 
French  Academie,  181,  184 
Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay, 

198 
Friedberg,  59 
Friendship,  144 
Fuller,  28,  72 
Furnivall,  5,  14,  16 

Gage,  150 

Gardiner,  213 

Genesis,  5,  42,  149,  150 

Genesis  of  New  England  Churches, 

38, 53, 66 
Gentihs,  82 
Gentiluomo,  181 
Gentle  Lash,  231 
Getaker,  88 
Gibbon,  130,  133 
Gibson,  161 


Giraldi,  181,  186,  188 

Glasse  for  disobedient  sounes,  189- 

190 
Glasse  of  God's  Providence,  230 
Glasse  of  Truthe,  210,  217,  219, 

220,  224 
Gloriana,  174 
Godly  Form  of  Hovsehold  Gotteme- 

mmt,  132,  133,  154 
Godolphin,  9,  10,  84,  87 
Godwin,  226 

Golden  Book  of  Mairimony,  114 
Golden  Chain,  131 
Golden  Grove,  134,  185 
Good  Wife,  145 

Goodly  advise  touching  mariage,  154 
Goodrich,  220 
Gosson,  167 
GosynhyU,  161,  165 
Gouge,  25,  26,  86,  123,  136,  137, 

138,  234 
de  Gournay,  174 
Gouvemail  of  Princes,  182 
Gouvemour,  182 
Gower,  191 
Greene,  196,  198 
Greenwood,  45,  46,  47,  50,  53 
Grey,  173 

Griffith,  133,  136,  137,  138,  237 
Grimstone,  182 
Grosart,  190 
Grotius,  230 
Guide  to  Honovr,  187 
Guls  Hornbook,  169 

H.,  T.,  145 

Haddon,  63 

Haec-Vir,  168-169 

HaU,  88,  134 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  31 


INDEX 


265 


Hanbury,  43,  45,  46,  48,  70 

Hannay,  145 

Happy  Husband,  145 

Happy  Mind,  187 

Harhorwe  for  trewe  Subjectes,  172 

Harding,  44 

Harpsfield,  122,  211,  212,  213,215 

218,  220,  222,  223-224 
Harrington,  10, 39, 40, 72, 106, 114 

115,  120,  232 
Hawes,  181 
Hawkins,  219 
Helvetius,  123 
Hemmingius,  9 
Henry  III,  170 
Henry  IV,  170 
Henry  VIII,  7,  11,  13,  28,  61,  63, 

65,  71,  72,  114,  117,  170,  207- 

224 
Henry  VIII,  196,  197 
Heresiography,  43,  44,  52 
Herman  V,  130 
Hervet,  112 
Heylyn,  30,  44 

Heywood,  J.,  143,  145,  167,  194 
Heywood,  T.,  4,   126,    140,   145, 

161, 162, 172, 173,  175,  176, 177, 

178,  197,  200,  203,  204,  206 
Hic-Mvlier,  168-169 
Hill,  150,  176 

Historical  Collections,  34,  36 
Historical  Memorials,  43,  45,  46, 

48,70 
History  concerninge  Women,   126, 

140,  161-162,  177-178,  203 
History  of  Divorce,  64 
History  of  Divorce  and  Remarriage, 

117,  119 
History  of  English  Law,  8 
History   of  Matrimonial    Institu- 


tions, 1, 6, 13, 18,  51,  54,  58,  59, 

68,  122 
History  of  New  England,  53 
History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  38, 

53 
History  of  Presbyterians,  30,  44 
History  of  Puritans,  30,  32,  33,  81, 

92,  118,  147 
History  of  Reformation,  213,  214, 

216 
History  of  Reformation  in  Scot- 
land, 51,  70 
Hoccleve,  182 
Holyman,  223 

Homily  against  Whoredom,  69 
Honest  Man,  182 
Honest  Whore,  196 
Honor,  book  of,  180-191 
Honor  Military  and  Ciuill,  185 
Hooker,  46,  79 
Hooper,  29,  68,  74,  76 
Houghton,  197,  202 
Hou^e-holder,  135 
Housekeeping,  102,  108,  113, 115, 

116,  127,  234,  235,  237,  238 
HoushoU,  Treatise  of,  112, 113-114 
Housholders  Philosophic,  130,  144 
How  a  Man  May  Choose,  125,  193, 

196,  198,  200 
Howard,  F.,  64 
Howard,  G.  E.,  1,  6, 13, 18,  51,  54, 

58,  59,  68,  122 
Howell,  231 
Howson,  82 
Humble  Petition,  31 
Humphrey,  182 
Hundreth  poyntes  of  evell  huswrif- 

rye,  165 
Husband,  see  domestic  relations 
Hyrde,  112,  154 


266 


INDEX 


Hystorie  of  Christian  Princes,  130, 
148 

Ibsen,  206 

Image  of  Idlenesse,  167 
Impediments,  see  marriage 
Independents,  26,  27,  44-49,  51- 

54,  55,  58,  59,  76-77 
Independents,  Memorials  of,  43,  45, 

46,  48,  70 
Inderwick,  69 

InstittUes  of  Laws  of  England,  65 
InstUviion  of  a  Christian  Man,  117, 

118-119 
Institutione  Morale,  188 
InstUutiones  (Calvin),  12 
Institutions  of  a  Gentleman,  182 
Instruction  of  a  Christian  Woman, 

112, 154,  156-157,  162, 163,  170 
Interregnum,  69 
Invicta  Veritas,  212 
Italian  Renaissance   in  England, 

182 

James  I,  31,  123 
James  IV,  196 
Jane  (Westmorland),  173 
Jeaflfreson,  3,  6,  22,  23,  69,  171 
Jenkyns,  213 

Jerome,  St.,  113,  122,  123,  133 
Johan  Johan,  194 
John,  St.,  25 
Johnson,  F.,  48 
Jones,  188 
Jonson,  169 
Jovinian,  122 

Judgment  of  Bucer,  98,  229 
Jusserand,  188 

Juverdus    Pater    Uxor,    192,    194, 
201 


K.,  T.,  144 

Keichel,  175 

King's  Book,  117 

Kingsmill,  154 

Kitchin,  64 

Knight,  208 

Knox,  51,  69,  70,  160,  171,  172 

Kotser  Codicis,  208,  209,  212-213, 

221-222 
Kyd,  130,  144 

Labyrinth  of  Mans  Life,  191 

Ladies  Looking  Glasse,  161-162 

Larke,  183 

Late  Assembly  of  Divines  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  88 

Late  Lancashire  Witches,  204 

Laud,  32,  33,  41,  84 

Lawes  Resolvtions  of  Womens 
Rights,  63,  161,  162 

Lechford,  52 

Legend  of  Good  Women,  164 

LeGrand,  102,  114,  122 

Leigh,  D.,  173 

Leigh,  N.,  130 

Letter  from  a  Gentleman,  59 

Letters  and  State  Papers,  208-220 

Levitical  degrees,  see  marriage 

Leviticus,  207,  211 

Ley,  84 

Lihellus  de  Coniunctio,  9 

Life  and  maners  of  true  Christians, 
26,  30,  44,  45,  76-78 

Life  of  Cranmer,  213 

Life  of  Erasmus,  208 

Life  of  Milton  (Masson),  231 

Life  of  Milton  (Philips),  226 

Life  of  Shakespeare,  190 

Lindsay,  167 

Ling,  184 


INDEX 


267 


Little,  216 

Little  Nonsuch,  98 

Lives  of  E.  and  J.  Philips,  226 

Lives  of  Puritans,  43,  46,  67 

Lollards,  28 

Looking-Glasse  for  Good  Women, 

151,  153 
Looking  Glasse  for  maried  Folkes, 

135,  141 
L(md<m  Prodigal,  196,   198,   199, 

201 
Lowth,  131 
Luther,  11,  12,  18,  37,  41,  44,  49, 

63,  67,  68,  75 
Lyly,  174 

Macon,  Council  of,  150 

Machiavelli,  179 

Maid,  see  women 

Maitland,  F.  W.,  1,  8 

Maitland,  G.  R.,  222 

Man-Woman,  168-169 

Mancinus,  181 

Mantua,  224 

Margaret  of  Navarre,  173 

Mariage  and  Wiuing,  133, 163-164 

Mariage  en  droit  canimique,  1 

Markham,  185 

Marprelate  Tracts,  31,  79 

Marriage 

annulment  of,  see  divorce 

banns,  6,  20,  41,  50 

Brownist,  38,  43,  44-49,  52, 
60 

canon  law  of,  1 

ceremony,  see  ceremony  of 
marriage 

child,  6,  14-15,  17,  88,  115, 
124,  131,  133,  135,  138, 
156,  236 


Church  of  England,  2,  20-24, 

27,  47,  55 
civil,   37-38,   40-41,  43,  44, 

45,  49-54,  55,  57-60 
clandestine,  3-4,  6,  16-17,  40, 

110 
clergy,  80,  88,  120,  122 
consent  in,  39,  40,  58,  232, 

234,  239 

contract  of,  1,  3,  4, 17, 19,  37, 
38,  42,  76,  78,  99,  101,  107, 
115,    118,    137,    138,    232, 

235,  239 

Cromwell's  act,  36,  49,  54,  57, 

58-59,  70,  99 
definition   of,   45,    104,   115, 

126-127,  239 
dignity  of,  104,  108,  118 
early  Christian,  2, 37 
EngUsh  ecclesiastical  law  of,  1 
feast,  24-27,  115 
Geneva,  49,  50,  56 
HoUand,  37-39, 43, 44, 49,  51, 

53,58 
impediments  to,  8-11,  13,  20, 

62-63,  72-74,  79,  95,  102, 

107,  112,  123,  233 
Independents,  44r-49,  51-54, 

55,  58,  59 
laws  of,  1-13 
legal  age  for,  5 
Levitical  degrees,  10,  11,  62, 

73,  74,  85,  86,  87,  88,  115, 

118,  137,  138,  207,  211,  239 
magistrates   for,    52-54,    55, 

58-60,  78,  81 
mass  at,  21,  23 
Massachusetts,  54 
Milton   on,    5,    60,    86,    89, 

91-99, 121-122, 127 


268 


INDEX 


Marriage  continued 

Netherlands,  38,  53 
New  England,  44,.  51-54,  68 
ordinances,  12-13,  63 
Presbyterian,  50-51 
practice  and  customs  of,  1^ 

27 
private,  4,  6, 16, 37-40,  50, 51, 

55,  57,  59,  110 
Puritan,    37-44,    88,    94-96, 

121-123,  170 
purposes  of,  45,  94,  104,  122, 

128,  232,  235,  239 
Reformed  chinrches  (England) 

53,  54-60,  86 
registry  of,  49,  58,  60 
regular,  17,  19-24 
ring,  17,  20,  23,  29,  47 
Roman,  1,  2 
Roman  Catholic,  2-13,  120- 

123,  149 
sacrament  of,  2, 12,  39, 60,  67, 

120,  232 
Scotland,  49,  50-51,  54 
sermon,  23,  24,  53 
solemnization,  see  ceremony 

of  marriage 
state  of,  101,  102,  103,  107, 

113,    115,    116,    124,    125, 

128,  183-185 
times  for,  6,  233 
West  Friesland,  37 
witnesses  of,  2,  17,  20,  26,  38, 

40,  41,  45,  47,  50,  58,  233 
Marriage    and   Divorce   Laws   in 

Europe,  1,  9,  10 
Married  and  Single  Life  (anon.), 

125,  136,  163,  178 
Married  and  Single  Life  (Bacon), 
144,  189 


Marston,  169,  205 
Martyr,  63,  75 

Mary  (England),  120,  171,  172 
Mary  (Scotland),  64 
Mary  of  Guise,  171 
Masson,  226,  230,  231 
Matrimonial  Institutions,  History 
of,  1,  6,  13,  18,  51,  54,  58,  59, 
68,  122 
Matrimoniall  Honovr,  48-49,  90- 

91,  136,  138-139,  152 
Matrimonii   Christiani   Instituiio, 

9-10,  111,  112 
Matrimonii  Enconium,  111 
Matrimonium,  114 
Matthew,  12,  118 
May,  217 
Melancthon,  75 
Memorials  of  Cranmer,  61,  62, 213, 

214,  218 
Merchant  of  Venice,  4,  202 
Merchant's  Tale,  27 
Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton,  202 
Middleton,  169,  196,  202 
Milton,  5,  7,  11,  15,  54,  60,  62,  63, 
65,  70,  74,  79,  86,  89,  90, 
91-100,  111,   121-122  127, 
129,  148,  153,  160,  225-231 
quoted,  5,  7,  15,  60,  63,  86, 
89,  92,  93,  94,  95,  96,  97, 
98, 121-122, 127, 230 
Colasteron,  99,  226,  229 
Doctrine    and    Discipline    of 
Divorce,  70,  90,  91-98,  66, 
153,  225-231 
Judgment  of  Bucer,  98,  226, 

229 
Paradise  Lost,  160,  177,  228, 

229 
Second  Defense,  230 


INDEX 


269 


Milton  cordinued 

Tetrachordon,  98,  226,  229 
Treatise  to  Remove  HirelingSf 
60 
Milton,  Life  of  (Masson)  231 
Milton,  Life  of  (Philips),  226 
Milton,  Mary,  226,  227,  230 
Mirrour  of  Good  Manners,  181 
Miseries  of  Enforced  Marriage,  5, 

198,  199,  201 
van  Miteren,  175 
Modem  Language  Review,  174 
Modern  Philology,  188 
Modest  Mean^  to  Marry,  130 
Monsieur  Thomas,  195 
More,  A.,  160 
More,  E.,  161 
More,  T.,  112,  170,  223 
Most  Worthy  Women  of  World,  161, 

162,  173,  176 
Mother's  Blessing,  173 
Mouzell  for  Melastomus,  168 
Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  196 
MuU  Sacke,  168-169 
Munda,  168 
Musculus,  75 
Muzio,  181 
Myrrour  for  vertuous  maydes,  189, 

190 

N.,  A.,  153 

Necessary  Doctrine  for  any  Chris- 
tian Man,  117,  118 

Neal,  30,  31,  32,  33,  81,  92,  118, 
147 

Nenna,  179,  181,  188 

Nennio,  179,  181,  183,  188 

Neo-Platonists,  188 

New  England,  History  of,  53 

Newes  from  New  England,  52 


Niccholes,  136,  140,  178 

Nice  Wanton,  192 

Nicolas,  216 

Nine  Bookes  of  Women,  126,  140, 

161-162,177-178,203 
Nixon,  153 

Nobility,  books  of,  180-191 
Nobles,  182 

Nobylytie  off  Wymen,  161 
Non   esse,   etc.    (Vives'   book   on 

Henry's  divorce),  215,  219,  220- 

221 
Norden,  191 

Oeconomia  Christiana,  114 

Of  Reformation,  77 

Of  Weddid  Men  and  Wifis,  101, 

102 
Office  and  duetie  of  an  Husband, 

116,  170 
Oratio  de  laudibus  tuum  linguarumt 

222 
Order  for  Studying  the  Scriptures, 

77 
Order  of  Household,  130,  139 
Order  of  Household  Instruction,  133 
Order  of  Matrimony,  130 
Ordinance  of  matrimony,  12-13, 

63 
Ortiz,  215,  217 
Osorio  da  Fonseca,  181,  183 
Othello,  196,  197,  204 
Ovid,  140 

Pace,  208,  209 

Page,  136 

Paget,  E.,  43-44,  48,  52,  55 

Paget,  J.,  43,  48,  70 

Palmer,  230 


270 


INDEX 


Panedonius,  145 

Paradise  Lost,  160, 177, 228, 229 

Parents,  see  domestic  relations 

Parents  and  Children,  144 

Parker,  165 

Passetyme  of  Pleasure,  181 

Patient  Grissel,  197,  198 

Pattison,  226 

Paul,  St.,  8,  12,  42,  102,  104,  122, 

150,  158,   166,   172,   181,    189, 

194 
Paynell,  116 
Peacham,  185 
Pembroke,  64 
Perkins,  25,  42,  74,  75,  79,  80,  93, 

94,   115,    131,    133,    137,    138, 

234 
Peter,  St.,  150,  151 
Petrarch,  172 
Philip,  25 

Philips,  92,  225-230 
Philips,  Lives  of  E.  and  J.,  226 
Phillimore,  1,  9,  10 
PhiXotus,  145 
Piccolomini,  188 
Pickering,  79,  131 
Piers  Plowman,  142,  182 
Pitts,  212 
Plaine-dealing,  52 
Plato,  113,   140,   159,   173,   181, 

188 
Pleasant  Quippes  for  Gentlewomen, 

167 
Pocock,  212,  213,  214,  217,  219, 

223 
Pole,  G.,  113 

Pole,  R.,  207,  21&-219,  222-223 
Politeuphuia,  184 
Pollock,  8 
PoUard,  216 


Porter,  196 

Prayer  Book,  20,  34,  49,  50,  56 
Prayse  of  all  women,  161,  165 
Preparative  to  Mariage,  75,   132, 

133 
Presbyterians,  34,  50,  51 
Presbyterians,  History  of,  30,  44 
Pretended  Divorce  (Henry  VIII), 

122,  212,  213,  215,  218,  220, 

222,  223-224 
Pnncipe,  129,  130,  179,  182 
Primaudaye,  181,  184 
Principles  of  the  Christian  Religion, 

127 
Proude  Wyves  Paternoster,  165 
Pro  Ecclesiasticae   Unitatis,   219, 

222,  223 
Proverbs,  110,  134 
Pryde  and  abuse  of  women,  163 
Prynne,  32,  84,  230 
Publications  of  Mod.  Lang.  Asso., 

188 
Puritans,  25,  27,  28,  29-44,  65,  66, 

76,  79,  88,  94-96,  121,  122, 123, 

170,  232,  235,  239 
Puritans,  History  of,  30,  32,  33, 81, 

92,  118,  147 
Pye,  79,  82,  83 

Queries,  230 

Quinzejoyes  des  Mariage,  164 

RadcUff,  196 
Rainolds,  82,  83 
Raleigh,  176,  181,  188 
Rapture,  174 
RasteU,  107 
Reade,  19 
Redman,  107 


INDEX 


271 


Reformatio  Legum,  63, 69, 74 
Reformation,  1,  2,  6,  11-13,  27, 

28-36 
Reformation^  Of^  77 
Reformation,  History  of,  212,  214, 

216 
Reformation,  Records  of,  213,  219 
Reformation  in  Scotland,  History  of, 

51,70 
Reginaldi  Poli  ad  Henricu  octavum, 

222-223 
Remains  of  Cranmer,  213 
Remains  of  Raleigh,  176 
Renaissance,  140,  159,  170 
Renton,  9,  10 

Repertorium  Canonicum,  9,  10,  87 
Reply  to  the  Answer,  78 
Rich,  126,  161-162 
Ridley,  N.,  29 
Ridley,  T.,  1,  87,  94 
Roaring  Girl,  5,  202 
Robinson,  43,  51,  52,  53 
Robson,  182 
Rogers,  D.,  48,  49,  55,  89-91, 136, 

138-139,  152 
Rogers,  J.,  29 
Rogers,  T-,  183 

Roman  Canon  Law  in  England,  1 
Romances,  156-157 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  201 
Roome  for  a  Gentleman,  126 
Rous,  187 
Rushworth,  34,  36 
Rutland,  64 
Rye,  175 

S.,  S.,  130 

S.,  W.,  190 

Sacarius,  75 

Saint  Paul's  Threefold  Cord,  136 


Salomons  Divine  Arts,  134 

Saltmarsh,  84 

Schelling,  192 

Schole-howse  of  women,  165 

Schoole  of  Beastes,  130,  140 

ScobeU,  34,  36,  56,  58,  99 

Second  Book  of  Discipline,  51 

Second  Defense,  230 

Segar,  185 

Selden,  89 

Seneca,  140 

Sermon  on  Reformation,  28 

Servants,   see  domestic   relations 

Shakespeare,  4,  19,  190,  195,  196, 

197,  201,  206 
Shakespeare,  Life  of,  190 
Ship  of  Fools,  143 
Shoemakers'  Holiday,  196,  202 
Shrewde  and  Curste  Wyfe,  165 
Sidney,  P.,  64,  187,  191 
Sidney,  M.,  64,  173 
Silent  Woman,  167 
Skot,  107 

Smectymuun  controversy,  84 
Smith,  H.,  75,  132,  133 
Smith,  M.,  1 
Snawsel,  135,  141 
Socrates,  113 
Solemnization,    see   ceremony    of 

marriage 
Soppe  for  Cerberus,  168 
Sowernam,  168 
Sparrow,  170 
Speght,  168 
Speirs,  Synod  of,  118 
Spenser,  174, 181, 187-189, 191 
Spousals,  3-5,  7, 41,  44,  49,  73,  74, 

234 
de  futuro,  3,  4,  12,  17,  18,  20, 

21,  45,  49 


272 


INDEX 


Spousals  contimied 

de  praesenti,  3-4,  12,  16,  17, 
18,  19,  20,  21,  37,  38,  40, 
41,  42,  45,  50,  57,  58 
forms  of,  17,  18-20,  21 
instrument  of,  19,  41 
Spousals,  Treatise  of,  3,  17, 18,  19, 

21,  134 
Stafiford,  187 
Star  Chamber,  33,  64,  85 
Stationers'  Register,  136,  225,  229 
Statutes  of  the  Realm,  61,  62 
Stevenson,  160,  172,  173 
Stockwood,  131 
Stolzel,  67 
Stokesley,  216,  221 
Strype,   61,  62,  64,  213,  214,  215, 

216,  218 
Stubbes,  126 
Studley,  79 
Sutro  Tracts,  59 
Swetnam,  168 

Swetnam  arraigned  by  women,  168 
Swinburne,  3,  17,  18,  19,  21,  134 
Syde  Taillis,  167 
Sylvester,  108,  110 
Syntagma  de  Hebraeorum  codicum 

221-222,  224 

T.,  R.,  134,  144 

Taming  of  a  Shrew,  194 

Taming  of  the  Shrew,  4,  167,  195, 

205 
Tanner,  210, 211, 212,  218, 223 
Tasso,  H.,  133,  144,  163-164 
Tasso,    T.,    130,    133,    144,    146, 

163 
Taverner,  111 
Teltruth,  168 
TertuUian,  122 


Testimony  to  the   Truth  of  Jesua 

ChHst,  98 
Tetrachordon,  98,  226,  229 
Theairum  Mundi,  153 
Third  Petition  to  King  James,  48 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  12,  40,  118 
Thomason,  92,  225,  226,  228,  229 
Thomason  Tracts,  54,  59 
Thwing,  11 
Tilney,  143 

Timothy,  150,  151,  172 
Tindale,  114,  121 
To  a  Strumpet,  174 
Todd,  213 
Toland,  227 
T&m  Tyler,  194 
Topsell,  135 
Torshell,  161 
Touteville,  136 
Towneley  Mysteries,  192 
Tractatus  contra  reprehensiones  T. 

Pyi,  82 
Tractio  de  repudiis  et  divortiis,  82 
Travers,  29,  30 

Treatise  in  defense  of  Henry  8,  223 
Treatise  of  an  Houshold,  112,  113- 

114 
Treatise  of  Spousals,  3,  17,  18,  19, 

21,  134 
Treatise  to  Remove  Hirelings,  60 
Trent,  Council  of,  2,  122 
Tua  Maryit  wemen,  158,  164,  165 
Tunstall,  223 
Twelfth  Night,  4,  19 
Twelve  mery  gestes  of  one  called 

Edyth,  164 
Two  Angry  Women  of  AUngton, 

196,  202 

Uncasing  of  Heresie,  123 


INDEX 


273 


Universal  Cyclopediay  1 
Utojrla,  112 

Uxbridge,  Proposals  of,  34 
Uxore  dismissa  propter   Fornica- 
tionem,  82 

Vaughan,  134,  185 

Viewe  of  Civile  and  Ecclesiasticall 

Law,  1,  87 
Viret,  130,  140 
Vives,  111,  112-113, 116-117, 144, 

154,  156, 158, 162,  163, 170, 215, 

219,  220-221,  222 

W.,  R.,  130 

Wakefield,  208-209,  212-213, 221- 

222,  224 
Walloon  churches.  Synod  of,  39 
Warning  for  Fair  Women,  193, 199, 

200 
Watt,  82,  130,  133,  136 
Webster,  197 
Wedlocke,  166,  167 
Werke  for  housholders,  108-111 
Whately,  68,  69,  74,  86,  88,  136, 

137 
White,  53 
White  Demi,  197 
Whitford,  108,  109,  110,  111 
Whitgift,  30,  32,  41,  76,  78,  79 
Wichcraft,  109 
Wiclif,  28,  101,  102,  122 
Widow,  see  woman 
Wife,  177 
Wife,  see  woman 
Wife  of  Bath,  22,  164,  166,  169 
Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  143,  189 
Wilkins,  D.,  114 
Wilkins,  G.,  198 
Wilkins,  H.  J.,  117,  119 


Willohie  his  Avisa,  190 
Willoby,  190,  191 
Wiltshire,  218 
Winslow,  53,  54,  55 
Winter's  Tale,  196 
Winthrop,  53 
Wits  Commonwealth,  184 
Wits  Theater,  184 
Wohing  of  ure  Laverde,  142 
Woman, 

abuse  of,  152-153,  163-164 

apparel,  106,  151,  167 

bride,  22 

Church's     attitude     toward, 
121-122,  14^150 

conunendation  of,  160-163 

court,  159,  173 

domestic  books  on,  152-158 

drama,  193-198 

instruction  of,  112,  113,  154, 
237 

maidens,  103,  113,  116,  127, 
155-156 

rights,  74,  80,  96,  162 

rise  of,  170-173 

widows,  103,  127,  158 

wife's  duties,  see  domestic  re- 
lations 
Woman  Killed  with  Kindness,  193, 

203-204,  206 
Womanish-Man,  168-169 
Womans  Clone,  161,  162 
Womans  Woorth,  161 
Woman's  Prize,  l95,  202 
Women,  Church  and  State,  150 
Women  in  English  Life,  150,  176 
Women,  History  concerninge,  126, 

140,  161-162,  177-178,203 
Wander  of  Wmien,  26,  197,  205 
Wood,  116,  211,  212,  223,  227 


274 


INDEX 


Woolsey,  11,  13 
Worde,  221,  222 
Work  worth  Reading,  133 
Worming  of  a  mad  Dogge,  168 
Worthy  Wom£n  of  the  World,  161- 
162,  173,  176 


Wright,  178,  184 

Yorkshire  Tragedy^  199 

Zurich,  29 
Zwingli,  29 


VITA 

Chilton  Latham  Powell  was  born  in  York,  Pa.,  on  Oct.  29, 
1885.  He  received  his  primary  education  at  the  school  of 
Miss  Etta  P.  Camngton,  Baltimore,  Md.,  to  which  city  his 
parents  had  moved  in  1888.  His  secondary  education  was 
carried  on  at  The  University  School  for  Boys,  Baltimore. 
In  1903  he  entered  Amherst  College,  from  which  he  received 
the  degrees  of  B.A.  in  1907  and  M.A.  in  1908.  From  1907 
to  1909  he  taught  English  and  history  in  The  Asheville 
School,  Asheville,  N.  C;  and  during  the  following  year  he 
taught  the  same  subjects  in  The  University  School,  Bal- 
timore. He  entered  upon  his  graduate  study  of  English  at 
Columbia  University  in  1910,  holding  a  scholarship  there 
for  the  two  years  following.  During  1910-1911  he  acted  as 
Assistant  in  English  at  the  Horace  Mann  School,  New  York; 
and  during  the  next  year  he  held  a  similar  position  at 
Columbia  College.  He  received  the  degree  of  M.A.  from 
Columbia  in  1911,  and  at  that  time  was  appointed  Instructor 
in  English  in  Columbia  College.  This  position  he  held  for 
two  years,  when  he  was  awarded  one  of  the  WilUam  Bayard 
Cutting  Travelling  Fellowships.  In  1914  he  went  to  Eng- 
land and  continued  his  studies  for  the  degree  of  Ph.D., 
which  he  received  from  Columbia  in  1916.  He  was  then 
appointed  Instructor  in  English  at  The  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  His  published  work,  aside  from  the  present 
book,  consists  of  several  articles  in  the  English  scholarly 
journals. 


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